EU court orders Meta to restrict personal data use for targeted Ads

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has issued a significant ruling against Meta, Facebook’s parent company, mandating it to curtail the use of personal data for targeted advertising.

The ruling, made in response to a lawsuit by privacy advocate Max Schrems, addresses two key issues: the use of personal data for advertising purposes and the handling of publicly available personal information.

The court’s first decision imposes strict limitations on Meta’s ability to utilize personal data for online advertising, severely restricting its ability to tailor ads based on such information.

The second decision reinforces that personally identifiable information made public can only be used for the specific reasons it was disclosed and not for broader advertising purposes.

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This ruling comes as a result of a legal challenge by Schrems, who argued that Facebook had targeted him with personalized ads based on sensitive information, including his sexual orientation, which he had never disclosed to the platform.

Schrems filed his complaint in Austrian courts in 2020, asserting that Meta used so-called “special category data” to serve him gay-oriented advertisements.

Meta, however, denied these claims, insisting that it did not use such sensitive data categories to customize ads.

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In a statement following the CJEU’s ruling, Meta spokesman Matt Pollard responded, “We await the publication of the Court’s judgment and will have more to share in due course.” Pollard emphasized that Meta takes privacy seriously and has invested over €5 billion to ensure that privacy is embedded into its products.

He also highlighted the availability of various tools and settings for Facebook users to control how their personal information is used.

Nevertheless, the court’s decision marks a significant victory for privacy advocates like Schrems and sets a legal precedent for the handling of personal data in online advertising across Europe. Meta is expected to announce further steps in light of this ruling.