Facebook and Instagram users in the European Union will be charged up to €12.99 a month for ad-free versions of the social networks as a way to comply with the bloc’s data privacy rules
Charges of €12.99 a month smartphone users for and €9.99 for desktop introduced to comply with EU data privacy rules
Awful to see our personal privacy and social lives being ransomed like this. €10 seems like a price gouge for a social media site, and I'm even seeing a price tag of 150SEK (~€15) In Sweden.
Price is a thing, but having the option to chose is definitely good.
Now comes the real question: do you really trust the Zuck to implement a "do not share/sell anything" policy ?
'Cause yeah, if I'm paying, I'm expecting that none of my data is being sold/processed/transmitted to another company.
Paying to just remove ads is .. pointless.
I mean I would argue that the important choice - not use FB/Instagram at all - isn't an option for most people. People's lives depend on this software, a lot of people would have a really hard time connecting with friends or participating in community organizations without access to Meta's locked-in user base.
This is why the option to pay for your own privacy rights is a false choice, and why these gatekeepers need stricter regulation from the EU. These companies make billions in profits from their monopoly positions and privacy rights abuses.
the fact I don't trust this lizardman any farther than I could toss him is the reason I took it as an opportunity to say goodbye to anything Meta-related.
I haven't trust him and his "company" before, I won't start with it now and throw money at him
They'll sell your data up until you pay, right? So if I've had an account for 15 years, and then start paying, my 15 years of data is still at their disposal.
100% this. I'd argue though, that the price point is fair. In 2018, Facebook earned an average of roughly $110 in ad revenue per American user according to this article.
That's impressive that customers pay that much to advertise on Facebook if true. that's an average CPM of like $50. (5 cents per ad view)
At the same time, that article also claims that personalized ads are only worth 2x as much as regular ads, so that implies that FB/Instagram users should have the option to pay $5/month for ads without data tracking. I doubt that personalized ads are actually worth that much, but still.