Privacy watchdogs target Meta over paid ad-free services in Europe

Meta introduced a paid tier to Facebook and Instagram, which allows users in Europe to opt-out of ads for a fee. According to 28 privacy watchdog organizations, the model should be banned as it might be copied by other companies, completely undermining the GDPR, and would put us in a dangerous position where people would have to pay to protect their privacy.

The joint letter was signed by the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, Wikimedia Europe, the Electronic Privacy Information Centre, and others, and was issued to the European Data Protection Board as it's preparing to weigh in on the consent or pay model.

The letter said that other companies are also “cognizant of the fact that a majority of users will neither be able nor willing to pay a fee” to protect themselves from the aggressive tracking, collecting data, and targeted ads.

Meta previously stated that users in the EU, EEA, and Switzerland have a choice – pay €12.99 per month (and €8 for any extra social media platform) for an ad-free experience or endure the promoted content that is between 1/3 and ¼ of the whole curated news feed.

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