London CNN –
European consumer rights groups have accused Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, of carrying out a “massive” and “illegal” operation that collected data from hundreds of millions of users in the region.
The European Consumer Organization (BEUC), an umbrella organization of 45 consumer groups, said eight of the groups had filed complaints with their respective national data protection authorities on Thursday.
The groups claim that Meta (META) collects unnecessary amounts of information about its users – such as data that infers their sexual orientation, emotional state or even their susceptibility to addiction – to which they cannot voluntarily consent.
The groups argue that the company's practices violate parts of the European Union's main data protection law, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
“With its illegal practices, Meta drives the surveillance-based advertising system that tracks consumers online and collects large amounts of personal data in order to show them advertisements,” the BEUC said in a statement.
Meta denies the allegations.
“We take our regulatory obligations extremely seriously and are confident that our approach is compliant with the GDPR,” a company spokesperson said in a statement.
“We have revised data protection at Meta since 2019. We are held accountable by regulators, policymakers and experts for protecting people's privacy. We work with them to ensure what we build follows best practices and meets high data protection standards,” the spokesperson added.
Thursday's complaints will potentially expose the company, which has been the subject of intense regulatory scrutiny in Europe for years, to even further legal action.
Last May, EU regulators fined the tech giant a record-breaking 1.2 billion euros ($1.3 billion) for violating GDPR rules by sending Facebook users' personal data to servers in the United States .
According to the European Data Protection Board, the fine is still the highest ever imposed under the law in force in the EU since 2018.
“We are deeply concerned about Meta's practices,” a spokesman for the Norwegian Data Protection Authority told CNN on Thursday.
“Privacy is a human right for everyone, not a premium feature reserved for the rich. “We hope that the complaints can trigger greater regulatory scrutiny at the European level,” the spokesman said, adding that Norway would forward the complaint to the Irish authorities, the lead regulators for meta in Europe.
Graham Doyle, deputy commissioner of the Irish Data Protection Commission, told CNN the agency had not yet received any complaints from its colleagues.
“We expect these complaints to go through an initial complaint review with the respective (data protection authorities) before being forwarded to the DPC for consideration,” he said.
In October, EU regulators forced Meta to obtain explicit consent from its users to process their personal data for the purpose of providing targeted advertising.
A few days later, Meta launched a subscription service that allows its European users to pay up to 12.99 euros ($14) per month to use ad-free versions of Facebook and Instagram. Starting Friday, it also plans to introduce additional monthly fees for each new account a user creates under this offer.
Meta said the service is part of its efforts to comply with GDPR.
“'Subscription for No Ads' covers the latest regulatory developments, guidance and rulings from leading European regulators and courts over the past few years,” the company said in a blog post in October.
However, the BEUC argued on Thursday that Meta's subscription service offers users “an unfair and misleading choice” because data processing is not transparent, meaning users cannot know how a subscription would change the way how your information is processed. Additionally, Meta's market dominance means that users cannot easily leave the platforms without isolating themselves from their family and friends.
The organization filed a complaint with European consumer protection authorities in November, arguing that this “pay or consent” approach was an example of an unfair and “aggressive” business practice that is banned under EU law.
“Meta's offer to consumers is smoke and mirrors to cover up what is, at its core, the same old hoovering up of all sorts of sensitive information about people's lives, which it then monetizes through its invasive advertising model,” says Ursula Pachl, deputy director General of BEUC said in a statement on Thursday.
Brian Fung contributed to this article.