Zürcher Nachrichten - Free Facebook in EU with less targeted ads

The move follows the European Commission accusing the US social media giant in July of breaching the bloc's digital rules with its "pay or consent" system that meant users had to pay to avoid data collection, or agree to share their data with Facebook and Instagram to keep using the platforms for free.

"Today, we are announcing important changes to Facebook and Instagram in the EU... people who choose to continue using our services for free, they’ll now also be able to choose to see less personalised ads," Meta said in a statement on its site.

Meta said that over the coming weeks users in the EU would have the choice of seeing "less personalised ads" when they use Facebook and Instagram.

"This less personalised ads option relies on less data, so we’ll show ads based only on context -– what a person sees in a particular session on Facebook and Instagram –- and a minimal set of data points including a person’s age, location, gender, and how a person engages with ads," said Meta.

Meta launched last year its paid ad-free service or required users to consent to data collection and targeted ads to comply with the EU's new Digital Markets Act.

However Brussels objected to the pay for privacy model and Meta faced a fine of up to 10 percent of its global revenue if it did not find an alternative to address the concerns of EU regulators.

Meta also announced a 40 percent reduction in the ad-free subscription on smartphones to 7.99 euros ($8.50) per month. Web subscriptions drop to 5.99 euros per month.

"Less invasive ads are great news," said Anu Talus, the head of the European Data Protection Board, which ensures consistent application of the EU's data protection regulations.

It had also criticised Meta's pay for privacy model, calling data privacy a fundamental right that shouldn't become a paid option for social media users.

"While the solution still needs to be assessed, we welcome the fact that an important platform announces that it will offer a new choice for free with less detailed profiling for advertising," Talus said in a statement posted on her LinkedIn page.

Last month the EU's top court ruled that Meta must limit the use of personal data for targeted advertising.

O.Meier--NZN