I had turned targeted ads off, on Facebook and Instagram. I still got ads but they were not targeted based on my data. I could live with that
Today I got a popup requiring me to pick an option of either accepting targeted ads or pay the equivalent of €13/$14 for an addfree experience across all meta platforms.
Do you seriously believe that ad-free means they're not still tracking the hell outta you and aggregating from many sources you probably don't know about like Patreon and shit?
Edit: and on the subject of personalized ads, I find it more worriesome when you can't see whats going on. Its a weird paradox
Oh man I get to pay AND have my data taken? Collected by the corporation and stolen by hackers? What an amazing company, truly the leaders of the future of the web Meta is
To fully delete your Facebook account, you would need to go through Facebook's account deletion process. I can guide you through the steps:
Click on the account menu down arrow at the top right of any Facebook page in your web browser.
Select 'Settings & Privacy', then click 'Settings'.
Look for the 'Your Facebook Information' section.
Click on 'Deactivation and Deletion'.
Choose 'Permanently Delete Account', then click 'Continue to Account Deletion'.
Follow the instructions to confirm the deletion.
Remember that once your account is deleted, it cannot be recovered. If you wish to keep the data, make sure to download a copy of your information before deleting your account.
If you're logged in, you can directly go to the deletion page using this link: Delete My Account
Just copy and paste the URL into your web browser's address bar. Note that you may need to log in to Facebook again to access this page.
Quite a few people I know ranging in age from 20s to 40s do. There isn't really a replacement with its defining characteristics:
One-to-many blog-like posts
Mostly for interactions between people who actually know each other
Most people have an account and at least occasionally check it
It's that last point nothing else can match. If I post something to Facebook, most people I know have a chance of seeing it. Five people I actually know follow me on Mastodon.
It's not a new law. The GDPR has been around for years, but meta only recently lost a legal case saying that they cannot contractually force users to provide their data in exchange for access to the service.
But the GDPR also says consent has to be freely given, some interpet this as meaning that forcing people to pay in order for their data not to be used for ads is not freely given consent.
You should delete your account as mentioned here. The second step is creating a new account and pretending you're under 18. It will be free without targeted ads.
Meta is actually trying to comply circumvent EU's strict privacy policy.
Recently, The EU's top court said in July that Meta must first get consent before showing ads to users - a ruling that jeopardises the company's ability to make money by tailoring advertisements for individual users based on their online interests and digital activity.
But it's not ads in general I personally am opposed. It's the fact that they have removed the option to show untargeted ads. I personally don't mind ads but now they force either parsonalized ads or subscription
It was not their livelihood that was at stake, but the potential for more profit
The statement reads well, and I'll take them at their word, but if an algorithm exists to show you "relevant" content, they're collecting data and using it keep you on the platform.
This has been my issue with 'social media' for the past ten(?) years. As soon as Instagram switch the default from chronological to what it thinks you want to see, it's continued to be more and more shitified (so much that I no longer use it).
The beauty of the early days of social media was that it was real-time. I could see who was doing what right now. I could see what establishments were hosting events tonight. Instead, these platforms decided it was more to their benefit to show posts it thinks will keep you on the platform longer - to show you more ads. For me, this lead to finding out days later that things have happened I would have like to have done.
Wall Street run Social Media is garbage. Businesses, organizations, governments, etc., need to go back to publishing content on their own websites (or the Fediverse) and enabling RSS feeds.