privacy

Norway’s data protection authorities announced Monday that Meta will be subjected to a substantial fine for advertising tactics that violate user privacy unless the owner of Facebook and Instagram makes steps to comply with the law.

Norwegian regulator Datatilsynet says that behavioral advertising — a common marketing model that profiles users by collecting information like their physical locations, among other data — without consent is illegal.

User privacy fines

Beginning on August 4, Meta will be subject to a daily fine of up to one million Norwegian kroner (about $100,000). According to Datatilsynet, the prohibition “will last for three months, or until Meta can demonstrate that it complies with the law.”

According to Tobias Judin, director of the Norwegian Data Protection Authority’s international department, this decision “does not ban Facebook or Instagram in Norway; rather, it ensures that people in Norway can use these services in a secure manner and that their rights are protected.”

The firm will analyze Datatilsynet’s decision, Meta said in a statement provided to The Associated Press on Monday, adding that there will be “no immediate impact” on its services.

Data Protection Commission

Meta stated: “We continue to constructively engage with the Irish (Data Protection Commission), our lead regulator in the EU, regarding our compliance with its decision.

The debate around legal bases has been ongoing for some time and businesses continue to struggle with a lack of regulatory certainty in this area.

Norway is not a member nation of the European Union, but is included in the European Economic Area (EEA).

For a while now, Meta has faced criticism about data privacy. For instance, in May, the EU fined Meta a then-record $1.3 billion and commanded it to stop sending users’ private data across the Atlantic by October. Additionally, the new text-based app Threads from the internet giant has not yet been released in the EU due to privacy concerns.

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