Featured in this episode of Tech News of the Week
Facebook, long the industry torch bearer of destroying user privacy for personal profit, is once again in trouble in the EU. GDPR, which basically only the ad industry dislikes, is behind this recent bout. In July, the EU disallowed Facebook from combining data about its users from multiple platforms. This of course annoys Facebook because lately all they do is collect platforms for precisely this reason.
Additionally, and perhaps more damaging, Germany ruled that Facebook “didn’t have the proper user consent” for microtargeting ads. Even better, this ruling came out of the German Federal Cartel Office. I haven’t ever considered calling Facebook a cartel, but it’s definitely in the rotation now.
Now, it’s important to remember that this is not the first time Facebook has threatened subscriptions, but have always backed down because they know that they can make more from abusing their users trust than dealing with them fairly. Time will tell if the EU ruling changes that.
Facebook Average Revenue Per User has been pretty steady, hovering around $50/user/quarter in the US since Covid. In Europe, that number is more like $15-17. Wonder what American consumers would think if their EU counterparts were able to get Facebook with some measure of real privacy for the low-low cost of $5/month?
Trick question, American consumers don’t think about the EU. Ever.