Am I getting this wrong, or Facebook just told me that I no longer have a choice to disable personalised ads unless I pay?????
I could live with ads as long as I know my info is not used to get me to them.
Is this legal according to EU laws? Shouldn’t we have a choice?
by HoboButtPlugFairy
34 comments
It’s two tiers, “subscribe to use without ads” and your info won’t be used *or* “use for free with advertising”.
Whether they definitely don’t use your info I’m not sure.. or how you pick one.
I mean. They are a company. You have always been paying with your data. Now the question is whether if you would rather pay with your data or with cash.
Didn’t they do that already?!
Just don’t use Facebook, it is old and boring.
I really need to get off my ass, download all the historic photos and shit I have around FB and nuke that account once and for all.
Facebook has been “free” because it uses your data for adds (and other things), that is how it has always worked.
Now the EU laws are changing and telling facebook it can’t do that any longer without giving you a choice. Your choice is to keep letting facebook do what it has always done and you get to keep using it for “free” or they stop using your data and now you have to pay monthly to use Facebook.
Just don’t use it. It sucks anyways
I’m a fan of paid social networks with ZERO ads. This completely changes the incentives for the social network.
With ads, their incentive is to keep tou scrolling and hooked to the phone as long as possible to show you as many ads as they can. This may include showing you adictive content and using weird tricks.
Without add they want to retain as many monthly subscriptions as possible and don’t particularly care how much time you spend browsing. So there’s at least a chance that they’re going to show you useful content and save your time. Maybe less click baity and aggravating content as well.
Time to delete facebook. Tbh been using it only because I could talk with my mom on messenger lol. Facebook is for old people lmao
Where are the idiots who were saying “but if they won’t advertise to you they definitely won’t want your data anymore!!”
Or, or, oooooor, now stick with me because this is a major doozy, **JUST DON’T USE FUCKING FACEBOOK!**
Yeah, it’s an insane hot take, I know.
Lol ‘’discover products and brands through personalised ads’’ = we just use your digital behaviour to create predictive algorithms that we’ll sell to some political candidate
always has been
Yeah no shit, only choice you’ve had before was:
1) do you want to receive personalised ads based on your behaviour or
2) random ads based on your registration information
You were always going to get ads. There’s only free cheese in a mousetrap.
the EU is gonna have a field day with this
You have a choice and yes it is legal: this menu is the [direct result of an ECJ ruling](https://about.fb.com/news/2023/10/facebook-and-instagram-to-offer-subscription-for-no-ads-in-europe/).
Facebook is a subscription service now, so you pay to use it. There’s no personalised advertising.
Alternatively, you can choose the free-tier option and don’t have to pay, and they monetise based on targeted advertising that you’re opting into by not paying for the service explicitly.
This is the same model behind some newspapers who drop tracking and/or ads for paid subscribers or allow unpaid use but with mandatory tracking. They’re allowed to earn money, they only have to allow no tracking for the standard service but if the standard service is _paid for_ then the ad-funded tier can be quite aggressive.
It always has
I do not trust those corporation in terms of not using your data when you are not allowed it. Nobody can see inside their systems and even if there is an external audit they will show only what they want to show.
Since i only use this shit for messenger and with only one person, what alternative would be best?
I tried Signal and its insane shit that never works well and not across multiple devices – gets out of sync every week or so
I don’t want to try Telegram because i dont trust russians, any of them, even if they moved out and promise little things
I dont want to use iMessage due to super shitty security and multiple zerodays every year
What to use then?
Do people still use Facebook? It’s just grandmas and aunts on there.
While Facebook is not an essential service, it is a very elaborate software that requires employing thousands of people to maintain – from infrastructure to software itself. Infrastructure runs on electricity which Facebook buys from energy companies. Given that the latter won’t give it for free, Facebook has to cover that cost somehow.
This means ads or a fee to use it. Third option is not use it anymore.
I think the choices are fair and it is up to the user to make it.
There is no free lunch. They have to pay their bills somehow.
you are still receiving them. nothing will change.
they are doing this for years now.
You want to have Facebook work for you for free?
Don’t like the proposition – don’t use it.
I have stopped using Facebook. No longer relevant to spene time looking through 1000 ads in order to see one inspiring post. Also, friends just seem to confuse relationship building with creating a marketing plattform for happy families…
You have a choice. It’s says so right there. Either pay or they use your info for ads.
It’s a free product. What do you expect…
– Wait, Facebook will use your data for ads no matter your preference?
– Always has been
…the sound of a gunshot…
Bruh, do you even Ublock?
All free social media use ads. That’s why they’re free. That includes Reddit. I don’t see the problem – either pay, or accept the ads targeted on what the robot thinks your preferences are. And have some fun shouting ‘camel rides camel rides Sahara pyramids pyramids’ at your phone and wait until the trips to Egypt show up.
You have three options.
1) pay, facebook gets your info but won’t use it to serve you ads. Maybe they sell your info, if not now then later
2) don’t pay, facebook gets your info and serves you ads based on that, they absolutely sell your info
3) don’t use facebook. They still infer your info from the people around you that use facebook and will probably try to sell that. But since you aren’t using facebook they can’t serve you ads.
You have a choice.
It’s not a public service, you are just a data point they can, and will, exploit. And yes, it is legal, and no, they are not using those categories that are protected by GDPR (like name, or birthday, or any address….).
Yep I had the same this morning in Spain. Will be nuking my Facebook account, it’s annoying cause I still used it occasionally to find new friends in Facebook groups.
10 years ago I was making jokes about Facebook PRO edition (paid).
Now here it is. What a joke.
*insert the chad photo here* Yes
As much as Facebook sucks, you only do realise the value of the platform when you leave it.
Wanna sell something locally and you live outside of ebay De and UK domains? Enjoy your 2003-looking ad board requiring you 96 steps to sell something with the audience of 1 grandpa in the mountains region.
Wanna find out more about local events / festivals and whatnot? Maybe try your luck with Meetup or better stay home.
It feels weird, but I use Facebook for only the purposes above. I don’t scroll through the feed or message anyone there.
?
“Your info won’t be used”
“Your info will be used”