Technology

59578 readers

3015 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

Follow the lemmy.world rules.
Only tech related content.
Be excellent to each another!
Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
Politics threads may be removed.
No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

521

Meta accused of ‘massive, illegal’ data collection operation by European consumer rights groups. | CNN Business (edition.cnn.com)

submitted 8 months ago by L4s@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

34 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Meta accused of ‘massive, illegal’ data collection operation by European consumer rights groups. | CNN Business::European consumer rights groups are accusing Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, of carrying out a “massive” and “illegal” operation of collecting data from hundreds of millions of its users in the region.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] jimmydoreisalefty@lemmy.world 9 points 8 months ago

The groups claim that Meta (META) collects an unnecessary amount of information on its users — such as data used to infer their sexual orientation, emotional state or even their susceptibility to addiction — which they are unable to freely consent to.

“With its illegal practices, Meta fuels the surveillance-based ads system which tracks consumers online and gathers vast amounts of personal data for the purpose of showing them adverts,” the BEUC said in a statement.

Last May, EU regulators fined the tech giant a record-breaking €1.2 billion ($1.3 billion) for violating GDPR rules by transferring the personal data of Facebook users to servers in the United States.

In October, EU regulators forced Meta to start asking for explicit consent from its users to process their personal information for the purpose of delivering them targeted advertisements.

But the BEUC argued Thursday that Meta’s subscription service offers users “an unfair and misleading choice” as its data processing isn’t transparent, meaning users cannot know how subscribing would change the way their information is processed. Moreover, Meta’s market dominance means that users cannot easily leave its platforms without cutting themselves off from their family and friends.