This is the best summary I could come up with:
However freely given hasn’t always been interpreted to mean free, as in gratis — thanks to a push by certain news publishers to put up content paywalls that ask users to subscribe to their journalism or accept tracking ads.
Meta appears to be manoeuvring towards adopting the same approach in a bid to squeeze its surveillance business model past regulators again, meaning it would be able to keep tracking and profiling users in the EU — unless they pay it for their privacy…
Yesterday the Wall Street Journal reported the adtech giant is in talks with the bloc’s data protection regulators to launch an ad-free subscription version of its service in the region.
And when adtech giants like Meta stand accused of gobbling up ad revenues that used to fund the news media… So the prospect of Big Tech repurposing a CJEU ruling to keep profiting at users’ expense would be dismal indeed.
When it comes to reining in platform power, as its executive (and the law’s proposer) the Commission will surely have been hoping the regulation delivers the kind of quick wins against Big Tech that have proven impossible under classic antitrust procedures, which requires painstaking after-the-fact investigation prior to any enforcement.
Having to wait years for the CJEU to clarify interpretation of a passing remark in GDPR litigation vis-a-vis the quality of consent can’t have been what the Commission had in mind for its flagship antitrust reform.
The original article contains 2,221 words, the summary contains 239 words. Saved 89%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
Can’t wait for the scandal where it becomes clear that the settings where just placebo, and that paid users are still data-farmed, in a true Fb fashion.
Just let this spy-ware corp die out…
There was a time when I think I would have actually considered paying around five bucks a month to use Facebook without giving up my privacy. But now that even most of my family has moved on from social media, I can’t imagine this working anywhere other than where it’s legally required to be an option. Most of the existing FB users seem content (or oblivious) to give up their privacy to hear their Uncle Crazy complain about the conspiracy du jour.
