When you watch a video on Instagram or Facebook, the app's algorithms track you.
As you scroll, they gather information to understand what makes you stand out — not only to show you content that keeps you coming back to the app, but also to show you ads that are more likely to make you buy something.
Meta calls the information it collects about how users behave in its applications “activity”. This activity may include what you say in posts or comments you make on social networks, the content of (unencrypted) messages you send or receive, the hashtags you use, and how much time you spend watching certain types of posts or videos.
When aggregated this information can reveal incredibly personal information, ranging from a person's music preferences to their menstrual cycles.
"This data is quite powerful in the sense that it 'tells' everything about a person's online behavior and therefore their interests, and their personality," says Tobias Judin, Norway's Datatilsynet spokesperson for privacy protection. of life. When this information about a user's online behavior is used to inform the type of ads that person sees, it becomes what is known as behavioral advertising.
"Literally everything you do on these platforms can be recorded and used for behavioral advertising purposes," he says.
For years, European courts have held that Meta cannot use this kind of data for advertising unless the company asks for users' express — yes or no — consent. But in July, Norway went a step further, outlawing the way Meta conducts behavioral advertising.
Datatilsynet threatened to ban Meta's behavioral ads in Norway and vowed to fine the company $100.000 a day unless it changed its ways. The ban was due to take effect on August 4.
Three days before that, on August 1st, Meta quietly updated an old post (from January) on her blog announcing her intention to comply.
"Today, we are announcing our intention to change the legal basis we use to process certain data for behavioral advertising for individuals in the EU, EEA and Switzerland from 'Legitimate Interests' to 'Consent,'" the post said, without specifying when will this change take place?
Norway anyway considers Meta's move a victory.
How Meta (or any other company that considers its customer a product) will manage to survive, they probably didn't think about.
