Meta plans to ask users in the European Union (EU) for their consent before allowing businesses to target advertising based, the social media giant announced on Tuesday.
The move aims to address a number of evolving regulatory requirements in the region. It also stems from an order in January by Ireland’s Data Protection Commissioner, Meta’s lead EU regulator, to reassess the legal basis of how it targets ads.
“Today, we are announcing our intention to change the legal basis that we use to process certain data for behavioral advertising for people in the EU, EEA (European Economic Area) and Switzerland from ‘Legitimate Interests’ to ‘Consent’,” Meta said in a blog post.
Facebook and Instagram users effectively agreed to allow their data to be used in targeted advertising when they signed up to the services’ terms and conditions until the regulator ruled it could not process personal information in that way.
“There is no immediate impact on our services in the region. Once this change is in place, advertisers will still be able to run personalized advertising campaigns to reach potential customers and grow their businesses. We have factored this change into our business outlook.”
Meta underlined that it would share further information on how the process will work in practice over the coming months following further engagement with regulators.
