🎯 Crossroads

Europe sparks social media shake-up

Author

Kole Ogundipe
August 09, 2023

FEATURE

Meta can’t serve personalized ads without consent in Europe

Meta currently obtains implied consent for ad personalization through users accepting their terms and conditions.

But Europe is stopping that approach because it isn’t “necessary” for the apps to function.

Now Meta has (reluctantly) said they will ask for consent in order “to process certain data for behavioral advertising” in the EU.

The majority could opt out if Apple’s consent request is anything to go by.

And this won’t just impact Meta. TikTok made a similar announcement. And other countries (the UK included) are taking note of the changes.

That leaves some big questions:

  • What data will remain for advertisers to use without user consent?

  • Will Social Media apps still generate enough revenue from advertisers for them to stay free for users?

  • Or will users who opt out be required to pay? We’re already starting to see paid subscriptions being offered


The social media adverting industry is at a crossroads.

Europe is putting user privacy first. But are they ready for the knock-on effects?

TODAY’S HEADLINES

YouTube has changed the name of its video ad formats from "In-Stream Ads" to "Skippable Ads". The change coincided with a report that accused Google of showing ads on partner websites that did not meet YouTube’s own standards. (Ad Week - paywall)

TikTok is developing a privacy-preserving way of audience targeting called "PrivacyGo". PrivacyGo works like a ‘data cleanroom’, allowing two parties to compare data sets to pinpoint overlaps in their audiences. (Media Post)

X plans to add semantic search to the platform. This will enable X to better understand the meaning and context of a search and provide more relevant results than using keywords alone. (X @elonmusk)

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Written by Kole