According to the release, the Consumer Council and seven other consumer organizations have filed a complaint against Meta for a number of violations of privacy laws.
– There must be a final end to the company's cat-and-mouse game with the European authorities – says the Consumer Council.
Complaint against Meta for gross violations of law
A complaint that has been submitted to the national authorities protection data, highlights, among other things, how the tech giant is breaching statutory requirements on fair treatment, purpose limitation and data minimization. It is also impossible for users to provide free and informed consent, given the company's mass surveillance and opaque business model.
– Meta has repeatedly tried to obscure how it violates users' rights to privacy, most recently using the “say yes or pay” model. It's high time for European authorities to address the way companies operate, says Finn Lützow-Holm Myrstad, technical director at the Consumer Council.
– The company's business model, which is based on mass monitoring and profiling of users, is fundamentally inconsistent with European law and Norwegian. Unfortunately, the company clearly has no intention of changing its business model or adapting to applicable regulations, says Finn Lützow-Holm Myrstad.
Meta is the owner of, among others, Facebook and Instagram, which have over 250 million European users. In 2018 in the EU and Norway The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) entered into force. The regulation sets out a number of requirements, including what personal data may be processed and what this information may be used for.
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Mass monitoring of your own users
Meta's mass surveillance and use of personal data has long been in the spotlight. The Irish Data Protection Authority and the European Court of Justice have also found the company's processing of personal data to be unlawful. In other words, Meta has been operating in violation of European law for several years.
– Collecting and compiling information about us not only violates our right to privacy, but also exposes us to manipulation, discrimination and fraud. This harms both us, consumers, and society as a whole,” says Myrstad.
– Meta tracks us both on its services and in other ways when we are online. Information about what we like, what we buy, our physical and mental health, sexual orientation, political views and much more is collected, compiled and used to target ads and other messages, says Myrstad.
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Complaint about Meta's "say yes or pay" model
Norwegian Consumer Council and many other European consumer organizations previously complained about Meta's new "say yes or pay" model to the network of the European Consumer Protection Authority (CPC). The reason was that the company forces users to choose between allowing their personal data to be used for marketing or paying to publish ads.
The data protection authorities in Norway, the Netherlands and Hamburg have asked the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) to: issuing a formal interpretative opinion. Such a statement will provide an indication of how the law is enforced throughout the EEA.
– The meta presents privacy as a right that we must pay for. We expect the authorities to make it clear that fundamental rights are neither for sale nor something that companies can respect,” says Myrstad.
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Source: Forbrukerrådet, Photo: pixabay
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