The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has ordered Facebook’s parent company, Meta, to limit the use of personal data for targeted advertising.
The court made decisions on two issues: first, severely limiting the use of personal data for online advertising.
Second, only utilize personally identifiable information that is available to the public for the reasons for which it was intended to be disclosed.
This decision was made in response to a lawsuit brought by privacy advocate Max Schrems, who alleged that Facebook showed him customized advertisements by using his data, including his sexual orientation.
In 2020, Schrems filed his first complaint in Austrian courts, claiming that while he never disclosed his sexual orientation on the site, he was singled out for gay-oriented advertisements.
However, Meta denied using the so-called special category data to customize adverts.
“We await the publication of the Court’s judgment and will have more to share in due course,” Meta spokesman Matt Pollard told the media via email.
“Meta takes privacy very seriously and has invested over five billion Euros to embed privacy at the heart of our products. Everyone using Facebook has access to a wide range of settings and tools that allow people to manage how we use their information.”
