Meta is considering offering ad-free versions of Facebook and Instagram for $14 a month – but only in Europe.
Meta wants to charge EU users $14 a month if they don't agree to personalized ads on Facebook and Instagram::Meta is considering offering ad-free versions of Facebook and Instagram for $14 a month – but only in Europe.
I am not convinced this gets them off the hook. But I'll assume he has better lawyers than me. What it does show, is the value of forcing people to provide data to provide personalized ads.
No service should be forced to give their service for free, or be forced to offer it via ads. Facebook at any moment could say the service costs $100 a month to use, we don't care what you think or say.
The big question (which is disputed, even among DPAs) is whether offering this makes it OK to offer it via ads with tracking without a way to opt out for free.
Doing "tracking ads or no service" is illegal - the consent isn't "freely given" and thus invalid, so they'd be processing data without consent or other valid justification. Some argue that with such a model the consent is freely given...
Either way, the max fine will be 4% of revenue, which means nothing if doing it this way doubles revenue...