In its standoff with Brussels, Meta is making a concession: its social networks Facebook and Instagram will offer their users the option to view “less personalized ads”, the company announced Tuesday, November 12. European regulators have been demanding for many months that the company ask Internet users for their consent before serving them targeted advertisements based on their personal data. And, in the event of refusal, to offer them a free option with non-targeted advertisements, which Meta has so far refused to do.
Concretely, the new option will be offered to users of the two social networks “in the coming weeks”with a notification message offering a choice. “These less personalized ads rely on less data, so we will show ads based only on context – that is, on the content seen by a person during a visit to Facebook or Instagram – and on a minimal amount of data, including the person’s age, location, gender and how they interact with advertisements”, explains the company.
Making no secret of its preference for targeted ads, Meta warns that “advertisements will thus be less relevant and adapted to the interests of users, who will see advertisements that they consider less interesting”.
Shortfall
Above all, Meta warns that this option will be accompanied by “ad breaks”, Who “cannot be interrupted for a few seconds”. Similar to television spots, these formats “are common on other platforms”Meta justifies, in an allusion to YouTube, in particular. This development is intended to compensate for the lower economic value of less targeted advertisements, sold less expensively to advertisers. Allowing European users to opt out of targeted advertising, which is the heart of Meta’s business model, could result in a loss of revenue.
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To avoid this, Mark Zuckerberg’s company had the idea, in 2023, of offering a version without advertising but accessible only through a subscription, not for free. This sparked criticism from consumer associations, accusing Meta of charging for privacy. The European Commission also opened an investigation in July, considering that this subscription was an infringement of the legislation on digital markets – or Digital Markets Act (DMA).
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