Meta Settles UK Lawsuit, Agrees to Stop Tracking User for Targeted Ads

Meta Settles UK Lawsuit, Agrees to Stop Tracking User for Targeted Ads

A human rights campaigner, Tanya O’Carroll, has succeeded in forcing social media giant Meta not to use her data for targeted advertising. The agreement is contained in a settlement to an individual challenge she lodged against Meta’s tracking and profiling back in 2022. Image:Jens Büttner/picture alliance / Getty Images O’Carroll had argued that a legal right to object to the use of personal data for direct marketing that’s contained in U.K. (and E.U.) data protection law, along with an unqualified right that personal data shall no longer be processed for such a purpose if the user objects, meant Meta must respect her objection and stop tracking and profiling her to serve its microtargeted ads. Meta refuted this — claiming its “personalized ads” are not direct marketing. The case had been due to be heard in the English High Court on Monday, but the settlement ends the legal action. For O’Carroll it’s an individual win: Meta must stop using her data for ad targeting when she uses its serv…