Meta Plans to Put a Price on Privacy for EU Users

Worth Paying For?

On the surface, it might seem like a good idea, although an expensive one.

Pay a monthly subscription of $14 a month on mobile devices and up to $17 on a desktop and protect your personal data from Meta.

But is that really what's on the table here?

It is much more likely that Facebook and Instagram will still collect your data. They just won't use it for targeted advertising. And it's more likely that you will still see adverts but they just won't be personalized.

But of course, there will be some people who get taken in by it, believing their data will be protected and private.

With 307 million active daily users on Facebook in Europe and 294.1 million Instagram users, if even a mere percentage of these users decide to pay the so-called privacy fee, Meta will make an obscene amount of money.

Even more than they already do.

The other issue is that, even with paying, how can users really trust that Meta will honor their part of the deal? Meta doesn't have the best reputation when it comes to user data after all.

When people who don't even have a Facebook account have "shadow profiles" on Meta, then you can rest assured that a registered and paying customer's details will be stored. And will be making Meta money somehow.

How can this be legal?

The European Data Protection Board recently declared that Meta's use of personal data has been illegal, at least between 2018 and 2023.

In its judgment, the Court of Justice (CJEU) said that there must be an alternative to ads and "if necessary for an appropriate fee".

Meta has focused on those six words and decided to run with it.

It is unclear whether this "Pay for Your Rights" proposal will be accepted when it comes back before the CJEU. The all-important six words were added as an "obiter dictum", which is an expression of opinion and not legally binding.

Max Schrems Privacy Lawyer and Honorary Chair of the privacy website, None of Your Business (noyb) has said,

"The CJEU said that the alternative to ads must be 'necessary' and the fee must be 'appropriate'. I don't think € 160 a year is what they had in mind."

He added,

"Fundamental rights cannot be for sale. Are we going to pay for the right to vote or the right to free speech next? This would mean that only the rich can enjoy these rights, at a time when many people are struggling to make ends meet. Introducing this idea in the area of your right to data protection is a major shift. We would fight this up and down the courts."

However, this payment model isn't new.

Newspapers like the Austrian "Der Standard" have been charging its online readers a fee of €8.90 a month for the non-processing of their personal data for advertising. It has been a way for journalistic sites to claw back some of the advertising revenue that was lost to big tech platforms. Like Meta.

Now it seems, Meta is cashing in with the very same tactic.

Whether the EU courts will accept this proposed change for data protection, or whether they will simply ask for a lower fee, remains to be seen. Watch this space.

If you want to avoid having to make the decision between privacy and personalized adverts, then you can always delete your accounts.

For details on how to delete your Facebook account check out our article: How To Guard Your Private Information and Delete Unwanted Content from Facebook