Meta seems to have finally caved in to the European Union and should soon allow users to use social networks like Facebook and Instagram without being tracked to receive targeted ads. It is what points The Wall Street Journalwhich detailed how data collection can be turned off in these apps.
The novelty comes after several lawsuits that made Meta consider leaving Europe and even being fined more than $ 390 million by the Data Protection Commission of Ireland for forcing its users to receive targeted ads.
Stopping having your activity on Facebook and Instagram tracked in order to receive targeted ads sounds like a good idea, but having this “privilege” shouldn’t be easy at all. First, the user must fill out a form requesting that their activities no longer be tracked by Meta, which will review the request.
Despite this, Meta is said to still have final say on the request, which literally puts users’ privacy in the hands of a corporation. This means that the default will be to have the tracking enabled just by having or creating an account on Facebook and Instagram and disabling this must, at the very least, be bureaucratic.
More worryingly, Facebook and Instagram monitor your activity on the websites you visit, how you use other apps, what you search for in each of them, mouse movements on the screen, typing, and much more. In short, the amount of data collected is immense.
Of course, you can choose to disable this type of tracking, but the app will continue to collect usage data within it, which is what the European Union wants to prevent at this time, as Facebook and Instagram have built-in browsers that collect even more information from the user. user when they are in use just like TikTok.
Do you think it’s okay for Facebook and Instagram to track your internet activity?
