Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp may need to overhaul how they collect the data of users in Europe after the top EU court ruled against parent company Meta on Tuesday.

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled in favour of Germany’s anti-cartel watchdog, which had argued that it could take data privacy issues into account when considering antitrust cases.

One of the key issues in the case was Meta’s ability to link data across platforms, which allows it to closely target adverts at users, the principal way it makes money.

The German watchdog barred Meta from mixing personal data gathered on Facebook with details harvested from Instagram or WhatsApp, arguing that it amounted to an abuse of its dominant market position in Germany.

The European court said cartel offices were within their rights to carry out investigations under the EU’s huge data protection regulation (GDPR).

“The judgment will have far-reaching effects on the business models used in the data economy,” tweeted Andreas Mundt, head of the anti-cartel watchdog.

  • @seacockerEnglish
    10•1 year ago

    Clear implications for Threads/Instagram data sharing.

    • Dr. MooseEnglish
      8•1 year ago

      No wonder they were so scared of launching in EU. Threads is basically instagram under the hood apparently too. Like using the same exact backend with some hacks.

      • no bananaEnglish
        9•1 year ago

        Almost like they cobbled it together when they saw reddit & twitter slip up.