The war on user privacy continues this week, as Meta has been ordered to halt behavioral advertising in Norway.
Meta received the order on July 14 from the Norwegian Data Protection Authority.
The order states that Meta can no longer serve personalized behavioral ads to consumers on Facebook and Instagram. The ban starts August 4 and will last for three months.
Let’s dive into the ban order itself and what it means for advertisers – now and in the future.
Background Of The Meta Personalized Ads Ban
In a previous ruling on July 4, the Court of Justice of the European Union stated that Meta was “unlawfully collecting people’s data to target them with ads without their explicit consent and based on the firm’s ‘legitimate interest.’
In addition to the EU ruling, Meta is being investigated by the Irish Data Protection Commission over similar advertising practices.
In January 2023, they fined Meta $410 million because they believed the company infringed on European consumers’ privacy. Since Meta appealed the decision, this particular investigation is still underway.
Because the Irish privacy regulator leads the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliance for all of Europe, countries within that region can make their own decisions for up to three months.
As a result of the ongoing investigation, Norway is the first country to issue such a ban to Meta just this week.