EU’s Top Court Prohibits Meta From Using Personal Data For Targeted Ads

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Key Takeaways

  • A top EU court has ruled in favor of Austrian activist Max Schrems against Meta.
  • Schrems challenged that his sexual orientation was publicly revealed and used for advertising purposes.
  • The social network giant cannot obtain users' data outside the platform for targeted ads.

A top court in the EU has ordered Meta to limit data use for targeted advertising.

Austrian privacy activist Max Schrems had taken Meta to court on the grounds of being targeted with ads based on his personal information disclosed at a public panel.

As per Reuters, the court ruling backed the activists saying that Facebook cannot use personal data from public sources outside its platform for the purposes of targeted advertising.

Schrems claimed that he received ads directed at gay men on Facebook after he disclosed his sexual orientation. This sensitive data used for advertising purposes is subject to protection under GDPR. For those unaware, Meta collects digital data of Facebook users when they visit other apps and websites.

Schrem’s lawyer welcomed the ruling and said that with this ruling in their favor only a small part of Meta’s data pool will be allowed to be used for advertising. Meta responded with a statement that it has invested more than €5 billion to embed privacy in its products. It does not use special categories of data like race, ethnicity, religion, and more to personalize adverts.

A Meta spokesperson also said that Facebook users have access to a host of tools and settings that allow them to control how the social networking platform uses their information.