Meta loses battle in EU, will ask for consent to show personalized ads

Enlarge (credit: NurPhoto / Contributor | NurPhoto)

After five years of fighting legal battles to prevent this undesirable outcome, Meta has finally agreed to ask Instagram and Facebook users in the European Union for consent before targeting them with highly personalized ads, a Wall Street Journal report has revealed.

This means that instead of requiring Meta app users in the EU to agree to invasive data collection used for personalized ads at sign-up, or else fill out a long form to request to opt out, EU users will soon be able to opt in or out by clicking simply yes or no.

The Journal spoke to sources familiar with Meta's dealings who confirmed that Meta sent a proposal to EU privacy regulators agreeing to shift to this consent legal basis for data collection as early as the end of October.