Norway gas temporarily banned Meta from running behavioral advertising on Instagram and Facebook due to the lack of data consent from its users.
Norway’s data protection authority, the Datatilsynet, has applied a ban of an initial three-month period of provisional measures on Meta’s business. As part of the ban, the authority states that Meta must obtain users’ consent to run behavioral advertising, or it must run other forms of targeted advertising that don’t rely on tracking data, such as contextual targeting.
As part of the ban, if Meta decides to continue its usual practice, it’ll face fines of around 100,000 USD per day (one million Norwegian Krone).
Speaking in a press release, Datatilsynet explains, “The Norwegian Data Protection Authority considers that the practice of Meta is illegal and is therefore imposing a temporary ban of behavioural advertising on Facebook and Instagram.”
The authority added, “We consider that the criteria for acting urgently in this case are fulfilled, in particular because Meta has recently received both a decision and a judgment against them to which they have not aligned themselves with. If we don’t intervene now, the data protection rights of the majority of Norwegians would be violated indefinitely.”
