Meta’s settlement in UK over advertising may have enormous consequences

Meta and an individual who challenged the company for serving targeted advertising based on her online behaviour on Facebook have settled the case out of court. Ms O’Carroll claims a victory as Meta has committed to stop processing her personal data to serve her with bespoke ads, and the case may set an important precedent.

The ICO intervened in the O'Carroll vs Meta case to assist the Court with the application of the right to object under the UK GDPR. It said in a statement:

“People have the right to object to their personal information being used for direct marketing, and we have been clear that online targeted advertising should be considered as direct marketing.”

The ICO says that pursuant to Articles 21(2) and (3) UK GDPR, Ms O’Carroll has an absolute right to object to the processing of her personal data and related profiling for the purposes of online targeted advertising where that processing and profiling are for direct marketing purposes.

Meta is considering introducing a ‘Consent or Pay’ model in the UK – and the ICO has indicated that this is possible as long as companies give users “meaningful control”.