the European Union puts a stop to targeted advertising on Facebook and Instagram

A European regulator has banned Meta from any use of personal data for advertising targeting purposes on its Facebook and Instagram platforms in the European Union, a setback for the American giant which is banking on its paid subscriptions to comply. The European Data Protection Board (EDPB) announced on Wednesday 1 November that it was asking the data regulator of Ireland, where Meta’s European headquarters is located, to take action “within two weeks” to ban on the group’s platforms “any processing of personal data intended for behavioral advertising”.

This practice, which consists of collecting and analyzing the data of billions of Internet users to submit carefully personalized advertisements to them, is at the heart of the business models of the web giants, but is considered contrary to the European data regulation (GDPR). In mid-July, the Norwegian data regulatory authority had already ordered Meta to stop collecting, without explicit consent, the data of users of its platforms for the purpose of sending them targeted advertisements, and has been requiring it since mid-August a daily fine.

In the process, the EDPB adopted last Friday “an urgent and binding decision” to extend this Norwegian ban to the thirty countries of the European Economic Area (the 27 EU member states, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein), he specified. This decision “binding” was served on Monday to the American technology giant, which risks heavy fines in the event of non-compliance.