On Friday 15 March, at the instigation of Patrick Breyer (Greens/EFA, German), 36 MEPs sent a letter to Nick Clegg, President of Global Affairs at the Meta Group, calling on the US company to abandon its ‘Pay or Okay’ approach, which requires users to decide whether they prefer to pay to continue accessing services or accept their data being used for advertising purposes.
“Privacy is not a commodity - it is a fundamental human right that should never be subject to commercial transactions. The ‘Pay or Okay’ model used by Meta perpetuates inequality, undermines the very essence of personal security and reinforces unfair systems”, commented Mr Breyer.
The letter to the digital giant points out that under the GDPR, citizens must “be given a ‘genuine or free choice’ when seeking consent”.
According to the letter’s signatories, “charging up to €300 per year just to access Meta’s services without surveillance advertising would bring the cost of an entire tracking-free Internet experience to prohibitive amounts.
In recent months, a number of voices have been raised in opposition to Meta’s system. On 29 November, Noyb, the data protection and privacy organisation founded by Max Schrems (see EUROPE 13294/9), had already lodged a complaint against Meta with the Austrian data protection authority. The following day, it was the turn of the European Consumers’ Organisation (BEUC) - and 19 of its members - to file a complaint with the Consumer Protection Cooperation Network (CPC) against the US company (see EUROPE 13304/15).
To see the letter: https://aeur.eu/f/bd1 (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)