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(This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /home4/scienrds/scienceandnerds/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6114Source:https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2023\/06\/07\/meta-fco-accounts-center\/<\/a><\/br> Meta has been dragged kicking and screaming into another notable privacy concession in Europe<\/a>: The German Federal Cartel Office (FCO) has announced<\/a> a new account center incoming which will see the tech giant provide users of its social networking services with a greater degree of choice over whether they allow it to combine data on their activity across its services or not.<\/p>\n It will be the first time Meta has provided such a degree of choice over its cross-site tracking and profiling of users. However it\u2019s notable the competition authority is not entirely impressed with what Meta has cooked up \u2014 as it describes the updated accounts center as allowing Meta\u2019s customers to make \u201ca largely<\/strong> free and informed decision about whether they want to use Meta\u2019s services separately or in combined form\u201d (emphasis ours). <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cUsing the services in combined form would allow them to use additional functionalities such as crossposting, where a post is simultaneously published across several social media outlets but Meta would then use the combined data for advertising purposes,\u201d the FCO also specifies, confirming Meta is intending to bundle its ads processing of users\u2019 cross-platform activity with a service utility (cross-posting). So if you want to cross-post you have to agree to being profiled across its services. (Hence, presumably, the FCO\u2019s qualification that the choice it\u2019s offering users is not entirely<\/em> free.)<\/p>\n This may sound like splitting hairs but it\u2019s an important legal distinction since European Union and German data protection law demands that if you\u2019re relying on consent to process people\u2019s information an individual\u2019s decision to grant consent must be informed, purpose specific (i.e. not bundled) and freely given.<\/p>\n We\u2019ve reached out to the FCO with questions.<\/p>\n Meta is not taking this step to boost user choice over its tracking and profiling \u2014 even to this qualified degree \u2014 of its own volition; the development follows a lengthy battle with Germany\u2019s antitrust authority over the adtech giant\u2019s so-called \u2018superprofiling\u2019 of users which the FCO views as an \u201cexploitative abuse\u201d of its market power, as the dominant player in social media, and therefore as an antitrust abuse it can enforce against.<\/p>\n In a pioneering February 2019 order<\/a> the FCO sought to do that by prohibiting Meta from combining data on users without their consent. However Meta moved to challenge the order in the German courts \u2014 which led to a stay and, more latterly, to a referral to the European Union\u2019s top court.<\/p>\n The latter is slated to hand down a ruling on July 4. So Meta\u2019s move to offer more of a choice now looks to be in anticipation of a CJEU decision that does not go its way. (An influential advisor to the court already published an opinion last year<\/a> that backed competition authorities being able to factor data protection compatibility into their competition assessments so it may see the writing on the wall here.)<\/p>\n In a statement accompanying its announcement of the revised meta account center, the FCO\u2019s president Andreas Mundt, described the development as \u201can important step\u201d \u2014 but also warns \u201cthe process is not yet concluded\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cIn 2019 we broke new ground in the area of competition law with our Facebook decision, which is based on the general prohibition of abusive practices. We now see that it\u2019s a rocky road to a free and informed user decision on how their data is being processed but it can be achieved,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Reached for comment, Meta emailed this statement attributed to a company spokesperson:<\/p>\n We continue to make it simpler and more convenient for people to communicate and access new experiences across our family of apps. As part of this, we will update our Accounts Centre to be more transparent about how our services work together and to give people more control over these experiences. We will continue to work constructively with the FCO, and appreciate its recognition of our ongoing work to improve transparency and user choice.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n We understand the roll out of the new account center will begin this month \u2014 and that it will be applied globally, rather than just for users in Germany. (But make no mistake; this global privacy concession has been driven by the German authority.)<\/p>\n The FCO\u2019s press release<\/a> chronicles how it has worked on Meta since the 2019 decision \u2014 a process it says led to the company offering an accounts center in the first place, albeit one the authority judged to be \u201cseriously deficient\u201d; including on account of manipulative design choices by Meta (the FCO says the company had failed to \u201cinform customers in a neutral way nor were all relevant pieces of information shown in a transparent and easily accessible form\u201d).<\/p>\n That was followed, in February this year \u2014 after \u201cintensive\u201d talks \u2014 by Meta submitting a revised plan to implement the FCO decision, including what the authority couches as a \u201csignificantly modified accounts center\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cMeta made a number of changes to the accounts center in the process, which made the overall user journey significantly more transparent and comprehensible,\u201d it explains. \u201cSeveral design elements and wordings were changed that could have nudged users to combine their accounts. The wording was also changed to specify in greater detail what is actually meant (e.g. \u2018personal data\u2019 instead of \u2018information\u2019); and finally, the process required to separate accounts was considerably simplified.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAlthough there is still potential for optimisation, it can ultimately be said that Meta\u2019s customers can now make a largely free and informed decision when using the accounts center. They will be presented with a general choice: Either they use all services separately with all major functions or they decide to use additional functionalities across accounts, which involves sharing more personal data,\u201d the FCO added.<\/p>\n While the regulator appears to have (largely) accepted this qualified choice,\u00a0the design of other elements of Meta\u2019s service remain a concern for the FCO, which also notes that it \u201cremains to be clarified how users can be informed as correctly and neutrally as possible about the use and data processing consequences involved in Meta\u2019s Business Tools and plugins (e.g. Facebook Login, \u2018Like\u2019 button) in a central location and how they can consent to or reject the use of their data in a simple way, and under which exceptional circumstances data processing across accounts can be legal even without the users\u2019 consent (e.g. for security purposes)\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cUnless the required consent has been free and informed, it has to be requested again,\u201d it also warns in another shot across Meta\u2019s bow.<\/p>\n The authority also points out that standards underpinning its 2019 Facebook decision do not necessarily represent the final word on Meta\u2019s legal compliance around data protection issues \u2014 given a subsequent update to Germany\u2019s digital competition law (which the FCO confirmed last year applies to Meta\u2019s business<\/a>); and given a pan-EU ex ante competition reform which targets intermediating tech giants (aka the Digital Markets Act; DMA) that\u2019s very likely to be applied to Meta too (and which the FCO notes \u201cmay require stricter standards\u201d).<\/p>\n (Notably, the DMA puts some limits on use of data for behavioral advertising \u2014 with a total ban on use of sensitive data and a ban on processing children\u2019s data for ads that will require further privacy concessions from the company.)<\/p>\n In a further caveat, the FCO warns against any attempts to over-leverage its assessment that the accounts center (just about) passes muster, with the authority writing: \u201cIt should also be noted that the assessment of Meta\u2019s accounts center cannot simply be transferred to other situations in which users make choices, because in each case the implications and the overall context of the respective user decision have to be taken into account.\u201d<\/p>\n In recent months, a major privacy enforcement<\/a> by European Union data protection authorities has also forced Meta to reconfigure its operations and provide regional users with the ability to request an opt-out of its behvioral advertising<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n <\/br><\/br><\/br><\/p>\n
\nMeta to let users refuse its cross-site tracking following German antitrust intervention<\/br>
\n2023-06-07 21:54:38<\/br><\/p>\n\n