Meta sued again for privacy violation

A large amount of unnecessary information about users, such as data used to infer sexual orientation or emotional state, was illegally collected by Meta Technology Group, violating privacy rules.

Meta faces new allegations of illegally collecting user data. Photo: REUTERS

This is the allegation that 8 consumer protection groups from countries in the European Union (EU) have filed a complaint against Meta. The plaintiffs asked the supervisory authorities to consider the accusation that the owner of Facebook violated privacy rules when illegally collecting large amounts of user data.

The European Consumer Organisation (BEUC), the umbrella body for 45 consumer groups, said eight of them had filed complaints with their respective national data protection authorities. These countries are the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Greece, Norway, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain.

This is the latest case against Meta's user data collection practices. The groups claim that Meta has collected an unnecessary amount of information about its users, arguing that the company's activities violate the provisions of the EU's data privacy law, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Meanwhile, BEUC said Meta failed to comply with GDPR on fair processing, data minimization, and purpose limitation, and said there was no legal basis for Meta's data collection and processing. The agency said that through its illegal activities, Meta promotes a surveillance-based advertising system that tracks consumers online and collects large amounts of personal data for the purpose of showing them ads.

Ursula Pachl, deputy director of the European Consumer Organisation (ECO), stressed that it was time for data protection authorities to prevent unfair data collection and processing, as well as violations of users' fundamental rights, by Meta. Ms. Pachl also criticized Meta's recent launch of paid, ad-free subscription plans on Facebook and Instagram in Europe - which the company said was to comply with new EU technology regulations. However, according to Ms. Pachl, Meta is actually exploiting the cover of protecting users' privacy to make money from it.

Last May, EU regulators fined Meta a record €1.2 billion ($1.3 billion) for violating GDPR rules by transferring Facebook users' personal data to servers in the US. In October of that year, EU regulators forced Meta to start requiring users' consent to process their personal information for the purpose of serving them targeted ads. Days later, Meta launched a subscription service that allows European users to pay up to €12.99 ($14) a month for ad-free versions of Facebook and Instagram. Meta said the service was part of the company's efforts to comply with GDPR.

PEARL

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