28 Concerned Organizations For Subscription Services Without Meta Platforms Ads In Europe

JAKARTA - A group of 28 organizations expressed concern about ad-free subscription services launched by Meta Platforms in Europe in November 2023. They stated that this model requires users to pay fees to ensure their privacy, a model that would most likely be emulated by other companies.

Joint letters by privacy activist groups such as NOYB led by Max Schrems, Ireland's Civil Rights Council, Wikimedia Europe, Electronic Privacy Information Center, and others addressed to the European Data Protection Council (EDPB).

Meanwhile, EDPB is preparing to issue guidelines in the coming weeks regarding approval or payment models. This follows a request from the Dutch, Norwegian and Hamburg privacy supervisors to EU privacy regulators for an opinion.

Meta states that this service, which applies to Facebook and Instagram, aims to comply with EU rules to give users a choice of whether their data can be collected and used for targeted ads, while users who agree to be tracked get free services funded by ad revenue.

However, the 28 organizations warned that other companies might follow in Meta's footsteps. They say that if 'paid or approved' is permitted, it will not be limited to news pages or social networks, but will be used by any industrial sector with the ability to monetize personal data through approval.

They confirmed that this would successfully destabilize the GDPR, the European Union's high data protection standards, and remove all realistic protections against surveillance capitalism.

They also added that they believed Meta, and other companies were likely to follow suit, realizing that the majority of users would not be able or willing to pay subscription fees.