End of the line for Meta (in the EU)?

Does it really change much? If I'm not paying for a service because it's ad funded then I'd rather have personalised ads than random shit. Just give me an opt-in and I will.

Depends if you care about the human rights afforded to you under your right to privacy, which most people are happy to sign away without a thought until something goes wrong.

Does it really change much?

Given that we're not in the EU...

At the moment the UK still has the same laws as the EU, and for all their bluster since Brexit, they can't stray too far from the GDPR unless they are willing to make any trade with the EU even more difficult.

Tell us why you think it's "the end of the line" for them?

What proportion of users do you predict would refuse targeted ads?

Where do you get that figure?

I thought this was going to be about Commencal...

I think the most worrying thing about this is how Ireland's authorities have colluded with "big tech" to break the law, as they have previously done on corporate tax avoidance. I hope there are also serious repercussions for those actions.

for all their bluster since Brexit, they can’t stray too far from the GDPR unless they are willing to make any trade with the EU even more difficult.

Have you read the news at all in the last three years?

What proportion of users do you predict would refuse targeted ads?

I genuinely don't know.  There's a bit of me that agrees with Scotroutes and if I'm going to get ads they might at least be for things I will be interested in (and presumably more likely to buy?) but there's also part of me that says, no, Meta are creepy as ****, and cash rich and so they can make do with serving me generic adds that are easier for me to ignore.

There’s a bit of me that agrees with Scotroutes

Steady!!!

TBH, the other thing about targeted ads is that they are repeated frequently and I find them easier to ignore and skip past when scrolling as I already recognise the image.

If you give people a genuine choice, as the law expects, then you will get a good number not agree with personal tracking.
I've had people complain about doing a proper cookie banner that offers proper choice, and respects that choice as the drop off of acceptance was 50 - 60%.

Their whole business model is based on this advertising, so the value of the EU market massively reduces. This coupled with the EU issues with data transfers to the USA based on their large scale harvesting and monitoring of data, it could cause big troubles for these entities.

There are adverts on Facebook now?

(I can really recommend the Facebook purity browser plug-in)

The problem with targeted ads isn't the ads themselves bit just how detailed they are profiling you and how hard they try and track you across the web, even when you try to not let them.  I don't care about the ads, i really care about my privacy

i really care about my privacy

I don't really worry too much about that with FB / Meta, even though I've been posting on it for 12+ years from Cambridge, it keeps adding my Market Place posts, marked "collection only", to random groups eg Edinburgh cyclists, which suggests for all the data they may hold, they couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery if they tried....

The problem with targeted ads isn’t the ads themselves bit just how detailed they are profiling you and how hard they try and track you across the web, even when you try to not let them. I don’t care about the ads, i really care about my privacy

Same.

But this is the problem inherent. As Scotroutes says, I too would rather have relevant adverts instead of irrelevant ones. When shopping at Tesco I'd rather get discount codes for, I don't know, cola rather than beef. But at the other end of the scale, we get Cambridge Analytica, Trump and brexit. Someone at Facebook must have been laughing their tits off when they came up with the name Meta.

The thing is though, services have to be paid for. People complain about the TV licence, they also don't like the adverts on ITV, they also don't want pay for a subscription like Sky or Netflix. Well... pick one, where do we suppose the money is coming from to create this content? Similarly the ads on STW might sometimes be annoying but, we have STW.

It's a worry of course. But it's a worry manufactured of our own devising because we've created and embraced a society where we'll happily pay a grand for a new telephone but will balk at the idea of paying 69p for an app. Nothing is free beyond altruism or theft, so what's the preferred payment method here?

Nothing is free beyond altruism or theft, so what’s the preferred payment method here?

I thought we manged to fund the NHS for two years solely with clapping?

If you cared that much about privacy you just wouldn’t use Facebook to start with. I’m willing to bet most folk won’t care and just tick the meh, whatever box.

The thing is though, services (that I want to use) have to be paid for.

FTFY

For clarity, I neither use Zuckerberg's nor Musk's services.

Nothing is free beyond altruism or theft, so what’s the preferred payment method here?

I'm hoping that one day someone does come up with a micro payment method whereby you can pay by visits you make.   I don't want to sign up to 20 sites at 10squids/month each.  But i wouldn't mind dumping a couple of hundred quid in an account that was run down as I moved around the web, especially if that can be anonymised down to the people distributing the cash and that they have good policies on expiring data

For clarity, I neither use Zuckerberg’s nor Musk’s services.

But sites that you visit may have a Facebook pixel installed so they may just track you anyway

I’m hoping that one day someone does come up with a micro payment method whereby you can pay by visits you make.

That's exactly how advertising works, no?

Coincidentally, I just tripped over this. Relevant here I think.

But sites that you visit may have a Facebook pixel installed so they may just track you anyway

Hence the use of Brave (shields up Mr Sulu) and some extensions to ensure that the chances are minimised.