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The recent binding decision from the European Data Protection Board on Meta’s personalized advertising practices might just be the tip of the iceberg for advertising technology companies and ad-based business models in the EU.
Industry-wide impacts are expected from the decision and the potential enforcement of Meta’s move to an ad-free subscription model for EU Facebook and Instagram users aimed at rectifying EU General Data Protection Regulation violations. But EU data protection authorities are prepared to put the industry under a microscope beyond Meta’s practices.
Regulators from Belgium, France and Germany made clear at the IAPP Europe Data Protection Congress that adtech privacy changes are imminent, going as far as indicating the potential demise of personalized advertising across the board.
Berlin Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information Meike Kamp said the mounting decisions against targeted advertising in the GDPR contexts of legal basis of a contract, legitimate interest and consent are creating “very, very strong doubts” that companies can arrive at lawful practices with their “very intensive profiling of behavioral data.”
Kamp was referring to separate decisions by the EDPB and Ireland’s Data Protection Commission against Meta that found performance of a contract to conduct personalized advertising did not meet GDPR standards. Additionally, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled in July that Meta “cannot justify, as a legitimate interest,” data processing for personalized advertising “in the absence of the data subject’s consent.”
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