After being fined millions of dollars by European regulators, Meta is finally allowing its Facebook and Instagram users to opt out of tracking on its platforms. This change comes as part of the pressure from the EU. Although Meta first threatened to take down Facebook and Instagram from the European market, however, it went all in vain, and now Meta has to comply with the EU norms.
According to a report by The Wall Street Journal, Meta will let its users in the EU avoid tracking starting Wednesday. As noted by the WSJ, Meta users in the EU can choose a version of its services that would only target them with ads based on broad categories, such as their age range and general location—without using, as it does now, data such as what videos they watch or content they click on inside Meta’s apps.
Meta will continue to appeal against the policies and fines imposed on it by the EU
The above option from Meta may sound good on paper, but there are some caveats attached to it. The process of opting out of tracking on Meta platforms such as Facebook and Instagram is a headache in reality. Notably, users need to fill out and submit an online form putting forward their objection to Meta’s use of their in-app activity for ads.
Well, the next step is when Meta acts smartly. After the form is submitted, Meta will evaluate the submission and decide whether the request should be implemented or not. So, here, it seems like Meta doesn’t want to go down without a fight, and even though the option to opt out of tracking has been provided, they are taking the matter into their own hands as to whether to apply the change or not.
Meta says that it will continue to appeal to the policies and fines enforced by the EU regulators, but they are bound to comply with them meanwhile. But it should be noted that this complicated opt-out approach by Meta may give rise to new complaints against the company.
