Norway has succeeded in getting the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) to make permanent and extend across Europe its ban on Meta (Facebook’s parent company) harvesting user data for targeted ads on Facebook and Instagram.
Watch them cry foul, threaten to pull out, start a legal fight, then go nowhere like the abusive type they are.
I wish they would pull out. It’s fucking ridiculous that so much of Europe is apparently just ok with using a Meta product for the defacto texting platform (WhatsApp).
Eh, it’s not like we started using it because it was Meta’s. They bought it when it was already popular, and switching everyone to something else is difficult.
Sure I understand the reasons why it’s this way, but it doesn’t make it a good idea.
Oh, it’s Messenger in Hungary. Not that it’s any better, just saying.
I mean that’s basically the same difference. It’s owned by the same company.
That is what I said, yes.
Meta is the cancer of the internet. The sooner they leave the better.
Better than the US, at least in Europe you are not forced to buy a specific device just to be able to communicate.
Who knows, if Facebook gets severely limited by these laws, maybe we’ll all switch to Signal or something.
You’re not forced to buy a specific device there. They all text each other fine. You just don’t get fancy iMessage features if you’re on Android.
“Fancy” features like group chats, or sending pictures that don’t look like ass?
When every single alternative (other than RCS, ironically enough) just plain works. People just text, send each other pictures, participate in group chats, and it all just works, no matter the phone, computer, whatever, there are even just plain websites for many services.
Watch them cry foul, threaten to pull out
Ofc. But childish maneuvers are generally less effective in Europe where authorities are still authorities and not just the revenge actors with the bigger guns.
Yep - and they’re too big a market to abandon, meaning they’ll just roll over in the end.
Meta’s practices also collected protected data like race, religion, and sexual orientation. Meta disputed that it needed explicit consent, arguing that agreeing to terms of service was enough, but courts rejected this.
Oh please let this be the beginning of a global backlash against corporate EULA’s and the start of a path towards a few well understood EULA’s, similar to how we have a few well understood FOSS licenses.
Cool
Hwip
[chuckles evilly in Norwegian]
Høh høh
Well yes. Unfortunately that just reminds me of Beavis and Butthead so it’s not really evil enough.
They’re already starting their paid ad-free $10 a month tiers for Europe only. They’ll stop showing advertising to underage people “for now”. They’re going to flood Europe with garbage ads and maximize subscribers that way.
Hopefully they’ll do that, so people would stop using their platform and move to a less money-hungry unetichal alternative.
What would the alternative be? A genuine question. I’m not a Facebook fan at all but here in Denmark so much is on Facebook. Announcements of the local playground, cafés, events, almost everyone uses messenger. It’s insane. And if it’s not on FB then it’s on Instagram.
Isn’t mastodon/the fediverse sponsored by the German government? Maybe we could do something around that
I don’t know. But mastadon is hardly an alternative to Facebook or Instagram.
Yeah, it feels like there’s no alternative.
I only hope Facebook will be bad enough that people would even want to seek another alternative.
Otherwise I don’t see people switch.
All of those are outside activities, right? In my town we have flyers and stuff in a few different locations. At times I get annoyed I can’t find information about events online, and then I think no it’s actually a good thing.
Nice. As someone who deals with compliance I know it’s gonna be a huge pain for them to deal with, which makes it even better.
I will only believe it when I see it. It has been a few years since the EU is threatening a ban and meta threatening to leave the EU, so far none has committed any action.
EU didn’t ban them because Meta complied. (the data protection bill, GDPR)
They will comply again, unfortunately. We could use a ban.
Must be nice living in countries where the government works for humans instead of corporations.
a targeted advertising ban would kill just about every social media platform
Nice
I can’t wait for Facebook to take the time and energy to make two different versions of their platform. One to adhere to the EU regulations, and the other for everyone else that harvests every last bit of data.
Oh, no, boo hoo!
Lmao
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It’s still better than having data brokers monitor every single thing you do.
