One question though: if I take the paid subscription, will meta keep harvesting my data and selling it to third parties? An ad-free Facebook is different from a tracking-free Facebook
There is nothing on this cold, moist rock that will stop companies from harvesting and selling your data other than the inevitable embrace of death.
Actual answer over circle-jerk speculation: To be legal in EU, they must offer one option without required (=forced) consent to tracking. When you pay, you can actually opt-out from any measure that require consent under GDPR.
All European publishers do this. They don’t want your money and probably don’t care much about the tiny minority that actually pays for freedom from tracking. This option exist to create the illusion of choice.
Hold your horses, they only said “ad free”, “tracking free” is beyond the scope, making this essentially a double dip.
yes
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I would have loved this option like 10 years ago – when it wasn’t clear what a toxic company facebook is.
It was pretty clear what a toxic company facebook was 10 years ago. I’d say it was already becoming increasingly clear by the time The Social Network released in 2010.
Would’ve caught zero traction then lol. You can only do this if you have a very established and dedicated userbase already. Trying this from scratch with little users is a death sentence.
I’d take this over ads any day
It’s not like they’re going to stop collecting data on you.
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Same here, but only if its reasonably priced. Otherweise I probably should stop using it.
In Instagram I only habe one Person I’d Miss from the family. In Facebook it’s friends and family from other countries and so many that it’s still practical to habe a facebook account. But let’s see.
€9.99/month if paying on the Web, €13/month if you want to pay from within the Android or iOS apps. Not worth it IMO, especially since they say nothing about not collecting your data.
E: pricing correction
Those companies are fucking delusional. Not even on it’s height would that be worth it to me. Just goes to show how much money they extracted from you via ads before.
Yeah, too much for me.
(I don’t think that’s it - it’s 9.99 if you’re paying on desktop and 12.99 with the Apple tax (also applied to Android), but applies to your whole account.)
I see that now, I’ll edit. Thanks
Maybe if they hadn’t already harvest my data for decades. Now that it’s no longer as profitable they want me to pay to just avoid being nagged?
Hopefully the EU makes an example of them for providing an extreme drawback to opting out for users. They know full well that this isn’t how data protection is intended.
It’s telling that this is omly for GDPR countries. They don’t want YOUR money, they want advertisers’ and data analysts’ money. A subscription isn’t as profitable as selling your personal data. How fucked up is that?
Honestly - as much as Facebook is a horrible behemoth, this makes sense to me. How do you pay for the service? By watching ads. Or you pay a subscription.
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Someone made this point above, but if that were true this would’ve been implemented in every country, not just the ones with GDPR.
The relevant reasoning [of how this makes sense in terms of alternative to privacy and regarding GDPR compliance]:
The option for people to purchase a subscription for no ads balances the requirements of European regulators while giving users choice and allowing Meta to continue serving all people in the EU, EEA and Switzerland. In its ruling, the CJEU expressly recognised that a subscription model, like the one we are announcing, is a valid form of consent for an ads funded service.
they’re insane.
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