EU Courts Ruled "There's No Forever" For Social Media Data

The tech court battle has not subsided for years now. This time, the EU court released a ruling preventing Meta from going too close and personal with their user's information. The top court in the EU ruled that limits will be put in place to make sure that Meta and other social media networks cannot use people’s information forever.

TechCrunch reported that the EU’s highest court sided with an earlier opinion published in April by a court adviser. The previous ruling also urged for limits on the amount of time companies could retain customers’ personal data for the purpose of targeting advertising.

This is nothing new and to be expected. The rulings reiterated the retention of guidelines mentioned in the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) established by the EU in 2018.

Specifically, Recital 65 of the GDPR establishes a person’s "right to be forgotten" and the right to rectification and erasure of personal data. Failure to comply with the GDPR could result in a 4 percent global annual turnover penalty, a number that could reach into the billions for a social media mega-corporation like Meta.

Last year, Meta had to pay a US$ 414 million fine (or approximately €390 million) for illegally requiring users of its social media outlets like Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp to accept personalized ads.

The EU and Meta along with other big tech companies like Apple and Google have tangled over the use of personal data in relation to the Digital Markets Act. Meta is currently awaiting a fine ruling for violating the EU’s Digital Markets Act when it required users to pay to prohibit the company from collecting and sharing their personal data. Last year, the EU’s Court of Justice ruled that Meta needed to obtain consent before delivering personal ads to users in the region.