Meta Platforms has said it is considering offering paid subscriptions for an ad-free version of Facebook in the UK, after it agreed to stop targeting a British woman with personalised adverts.
Tanya O’Carroll, a human rights campaigner, launched a legal action against Meta in 2022 alleging it violated UK data protection laws by failing to respect her demand that it stop collecting and processing her data for targeted ads.
Her case, which was settled and avoided trial at the High Court in London, was backed by the UK Information Commissioner’s Office.
Personal data
O’Carroll said she believes this means “the writing is on the wall” for Meta’s advertising model.
“People want a choice on surveillance ads, and the right to object gives them exactly that,” she said.
The ICO said after Friday’s settlement that “people have the right to object to their personal information being used for direct marketing”.
It said users must be given a “clear way to opt out of their data being used” for targeted ads.
O’Carroll told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that she created her account about 20 years ago, but discovered the extent to which Facebook was tracking her personal details in 2017 when she found out she was pregnant.
The adverts she received suddenly changed to being “about babies and pregnancy and motherhood”, she said.
Precedent
“I just found it unnerving – this was before I’d even told people in my private life, and yet Facebook had already determined that I was pregnant,” O’Carroll said.
She said the ICO’s position, which it stated in a position to the High Court, could open the way to similar legal actions.
“This settlement represents not just a victory for me, but for everyone who values their fundamental right to privacy,” she said.
“None of us signed up to be trapped into decades of surveillance advertising, held hostage by the threat of losing the ability to connect with our loved ones online.”
Meta said it “fundamentally” disagreed with O’Caroll’s claims and took its responsibilities under the UK’s GDPR privacy law seriously.
“We are exploring the option of offering people based in the UK a subscription and will share further information in due course,” the company said.
EU subscriptions
Meta already offers such subscription plans in the EU for Facebook and Instagram following a ruling by the European Court of Justice, the EU’s highest court, in 2023.
About 98 percent of Meta’s revenues come from advertising, and targeted ads are far more lucrative than non-targeted ones.
The company objected strenuously to Apple when the iPhone maker introduced anti-tracking rules for the iPhone in 2021 that require users to explicitly agree to having their data collected.