Comment by Someone | Hacker News Reader

Comment by Someone | Hacker News Reader

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> They’re demanding that Meta provide free full services without personalized ads or a monthly fee for users

Where are they demanding that? Reading https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_24_..., their complaints seem to be that Facebook

- cannot call the ‘with adverts’ version ‘free’

- makes it too difficult for consumers to find out what exactly they give to facebook in exchange for this ‘free’ service

- is not clear enough about the fact that paying will not remove all ads

- forces existing users to choose between paid and ‘free’ versions before they can use the service again.

Nowhere do they say on that page that Meta "provide free full services without personalized ads or a monthly fee for users”. Am I reading the wrong page?

> Am I reading the wrong page?

Yes. That's a separate investigation; "Today's action focuses specifically on the assessment of Meta's practices under EU consumer law and is distinct from the ongoing ... , and the assessment by the Irish Data Protection Commission under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)."

The illegality of "Pay or Consent" is a GDPR thing. The EDPB ruling on that issue is here: https://www.edpb.europa.eu/system/files/2024-04/edpb_opinion...

But it's an extremely settled matter. The GDPR says explicitly that consent is not "freely given" if the provision of a service is dependent on said consent. (Where the service does not absolutely require the data processing in question; See Article 7, recital 43)

Thanks. They avoid saying Meta should have a free option without personalized ads; they only say Meta should consider it. I wonder what other options Meta has, though, apart from leaving the market.

Maybe they’re thinking of Meta making Facebook paid for everybody, but giving users the option of getting paid for getting personalized ads? Apart from the wording, I don’t see how that’s different from “It’s free, but if you don’t want personalized have to pay”, though.

It would be different in that it makes it more explicit that users are selling something, though, so maybe it would be enough in the eyes of the EU?

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