European Court Rules Meta Must Limit Use of Personal Data for Targeted Ads

TapTechNews October 8th news, the European Court of Justice (CJEU) ruled on October 4th that Meta must limit the use of personal data collected from Facebook to serve targeted ads, even if users consent to the use of their information for advertising purposes, a move that could have serious consequences for advertising-driven companies operating in the region.

The Court of Justice of the European Union said in Friday's ruling: Online social networks such as Facebook cannot use all the personal data obtained for targeted advertising without time limits and without distinguishing data types; Limits must be set to comply with the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) data minimization requirements.

It is noted that Article 5(1)(c) of the GDPR requires companies to limit processing to strictly necessary data and prevent personal data collected (whether collected within or outside the platform through third parties) from being aggregated, analyzed, and processed for targeted ads without time limits.

TapTechNews noted that the case was initially filed by privacy activist and co-founder of noyb (NoneOfYourBusiness) Maximilian Max Schrems in 2014, alleging that the social media giant served him personalized ads based on his sexual orientation.

The EU court said: A person has made a statement about his sexual orientation in a public group discussion, but that does not mean that the operator of an online social network platform can process other data related to that person's sexual orientation, which may have been obtained outside the platform using third-party websites and applications of partners for the purpose of aggregating and analyzing these data to provide personalized ads to that person.

Noyb said in a statement that it welcomes this ruling and said the result is in line with expectations and that the judgment also applies to any other online advertising company that does not have a strict data deletion practice.