German Regulator Accepts Meta Data Collection Changes After “Landmark” Ruling

Dan Meier 10 October, 2024 

Germany’s competition regulator, the Bundeskartellamt, today announced the conclusion of an investigation into Meta over the social media giant’s use of data. The watchdog has approved several measures to provide Facebook users “significantly improved options” regarding the combination of their personal data, including no longer requiring users to consent to the collection of their data, including from third-party apps and websites. 

The proceeding opened in February 2019, when the authority prohibited Meta (then Facebook) from combining personal user data from different sources without user consent. Prior to the decision, Facebook could only be used on the condition that the service was allowed to collect data about users outside the Facebook service and link the data to the relevant Facebook accounts, according to the Bundeskartellamt. This included data from Instagram, alongside third-party apps and websites.

“The only choice users had was to either agree to an almost limitless amount of data being combined or not use the social network at all,” said the Bundeskartellamt.

Meta appealed the decision, prompting five years of legal proceedings, in which the Bundeskartellamt’s decision was upheld by both the Federal Court of Justice and the Court of Justice of the European Union.

During the proceedings, Meta and the Bundeskartellamt negotiated “concrete measures” to implement the authority’s decision, according to the regulator. Today the authority announced that Meta’s measures have been deemed sufficient to allow the regulator to close the case. Another appeal by Meta that was pending with the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court has been withdrawn by the tech giant. “The decision is thus final,” the Bundeskartellamt confirmed.

Data measures

The authority said the main measure ensures that Facebook users are no longer required to consent to Meta collecting “a limitless amount of data and linking such data to their user accounts.” Crucially this measure applies to data generated when users are not actually using Facebook.

Other measures taken by Meta, or agreed to be implemented in the coming weeks, include:

  • Introducing an Accounts Centre to keep data collected from Meta’s different services separate. This enables users to decide which Meta services (such as Facebook and Instagram) they would like to connect, and therefore allow data to be shared between the services for advertising purposes
  • Introducing cookie settings that allow Facebook data to be separated from other data. Facebook’s settings now allow users to decide whether they want to allow their Facebook data to be combined with data Meta collects from third-party websites or apps
  • Concise customer information, helping Meta users quickly find the relevant settings to prevent the unwanted combination of data by Meta. This includes prominent notifications on Facebook containing direct links to consent options
  • Limited combination of data for security purposes. Meta stores and combines usage data for security purposes, but is now only stored temporarily, with a standardised time period defined in advance.

“Altogether, these tools give users much greater control over the extent to which personal data from other Meta services and third-party apps and websites are linked to their Facebook account,” said Andreas Mundt, President of the Bundeskartellamt.

Landmark rulings

Mundt called the 2019 decision “groundbreaking” after five years of legal proceedings and ongoing negotiations with Meta. “As a result of our decision, Meta has made very significant changes to the way it handles user data.” He said the changes apply to Meta services such as Facebook and Instagram, as well as third-party websites and apps. “This means that users now have much greater control over how their data are combined.”

Mundt added that the landmark rulings by the Court of Justice of the European Union have set a precedent for legislative initiatives in Germany and in Europe. “This also means that the situation in terms of legal clarity and the instruments available to us to intervene in this area is very different today than it was five years ago,” said Mundt.

However, the watchdog noted that the conclusion of the case “does not mean that all competition-law concerns have been fully eliminated.” The package of measures was deemed sufficient to close the current enforcement action, according to the Bundeskartellamt, but Meta’s compliance with the legal framework behind the implementation of the new set of tools is not a foregone conclusion.

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2024-10-10T11:19:38+01:00

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