Technology @lemmy.world Iceblade @lemmy.world 12 mo. ago

If you live in the EU - you may also be faced with this Meta prompt. Info in text.

If you, like me, live in the EU, Facebook is now entirely clamping down and forcing free users to make their personal data available for monetization.

Attempting to access any Facebook domain and perhaps also other meta products will redirect you to the following prompt with a choice between either accepting the monetization of your user data, or coughing up a region-dependent monthly subscription fee: base (for me ~10€) + an additional fee (~7€) for each additional facebook or instagram account you have.

Now, the hidden third option. At an initial glance, it seems like there is no other option but to click one of the buttons - however, certain links still work, and grant access to important pieces of functionality through your web browser.

If anyone has information to add regarding Facebook or Instagram, please do share it. I've only (begrudgingly) used the former up until now, but I know many others use Instagram and don't feel like giving a single cent (nor their personal info) to Meta.

https://www.facebook.com/dyi - perhaps most important of all, now is a good time to make a request to download your Facebook data. Don't forget to switch to data for "all time" and "high quality" if you intend to permanently delete your account.
https://www.facebook.com/your_information - here you can find and manage your information, but crucially also access Facebook messenger.
The messenger app: Still hasn't prompted me with anything, though I expect that will change in the not too far future.

Currently my plan is to use messenger to inform any important friends that I intend to leave FB, and where they'll be able to reach me in the future.

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You need to make a choice to continue using Facebook

This reminds me of the movie War Games, when WOPR says, "The only winning strategy is not to play." The only correct choice to make here is to delete your Facebook account.
Third choice: Delete your account and never look back.
When the "Subscribe" button is gray and the "Use for free" button is blue, you know something's up 🤔
What's absolutely scummy is that "laws are changing in your region" is not what happened. The law hasn't significantly changed. What has changes is that the regulator is finally enforcing the law.
Delete that garbage.
The text is also incredible misleading. The data will still be harvested and monetized, just not for ads.
I welcome this change. It makes it clear to the user in realistic terms how they want to engage with the site.

Pay up with your money

Pay up with your data

Don't use Facebook

I despise Meta and all their products but they are entitled to charge people for them. Shit ain't free to run, you know.

I'd much sooner they showed this banner and force people to make a decision than what they've been doing up until now, which is to "assume" everyone's fine with their personal data being harvested and exploited without their knowledge or consent.
this has to be illegal.

like, no, seriously. i'm not a lawyer but i was working on a (since failed) startup in 2018 and distinctly remember how much headache the gdpr caused. literally one of the main things was that you cannot coerce users into consenting to data processing, or make features conditional to them. the gdpr makes a distinction between processing you do to perform a contract (that's why no one asks for your consent for processing your email address to log you in, that's implied) and processing you do for other reasons, which require user consent (that's why everyone asks if they can spam you on the same email -- it doesn't matter that your email address is already on their server, processing it for marketing reasons requires consent of the data subject). opting into these kinds of processing needs to be granular, if it's not they lose the validity of your consent.

i seriously hope facebook gets slapped so hard over this that no one ever thinks about doing this again. "paying with your data" should never be a thing in any society that calls itself civilized.
How much you wanna bet your info will still be used for ads even if you subscribe?
Lol the wording and design of it all. Subscribe to use without ads, picture of a credit card. Versus Use for free with ads, picture of a shooting star:

Discover products and brands through personalized ads, while using your Facebook account for free.

Plus the little "your current experience" highlighted in green. And finally "use for free" highlighted in blue.

They really want you to go with the second option so they can try to prove to the court that people want free stuff. When most of them were likely unconsciously coerced into it.
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Dark pattern of the week: button colors.

Can you guess which button Meta really wants you to press?
"It's free and always will be"
Recently uninstalled:

Facebook

Instagram

Twitter/X

Reddit

I feel free. My phone feels lighter, almost. My brain feels lighter.
The real question, in EU, is not Facebook (or even Instagram). It’s WhatsApp. Business talk with WhatsApp, family talk with WhatsApp, meet a person in a bar? Yep WhatsApp or you are the weirdo

As soon I got the banners, I uninstalled the app and switched to friendly. Not sure if I have such luxury with WhatsApp…. Maybe time to explore matrix? 🤷
LOL why are people using Facebook?
I'm surprised the EU hasn't pounced on them for GRPR infringement, maybe there's a loophole Meta's exploiting. Being total assholes ain't a crime.
Easy fix. Stop using crap like meta, or Reddit, or TikTok, or Twitter or another degenerated social media platform...
Laws are changing in your region, so we're introducinga new choice about how we use your info for ads.

Which law?
Sounds like a lot of hassle, when the real answer is to just get rid of Facebook
I always choose 'fuck whoever is giving me an ultimatum'. That's the control freak. That's the source of problems.
"Your info won't be used for ads" - but it will be used in other ways
You can delete your account(s) clicking on "accounts in this Account Center" btw
This forced me to look into hosting an own social media as a replacement for me, my friends and acquaintances. Where we can chat, upload files, organise events, and make posts about all sorts of things.

Anyone got a recommendation for software, preferably open source?

Humhub looked promising, but the "free" version only allows 5 people, which is just dumb.
My relatives are using FB as crazy. Like too much. I was telling them how Facebook is tracking and selling users data, thats why i dont use FB and all i have seen in their eyes was wanting me to shut the f*ck up
They were already monetizing your data, just like websites were already using cookies to track you before the EU made it mandatory to inform visitors about this.
I've gotten the prompt. Considering just deleting my account. It's been basically a zombie-account since around when covid hit.
There should be a "neither, close my account now" option.
Yep I saw that a few days ago (I live in rep. of Ireland), I then deleted my account because fb for me is just a time waster. My mother decided to opt for the free version and so now she sees more ads than friend activities. She'll probably deactivate her fb account so she can continue to use messenger.
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The boasts of having already left Facebook and the calls for others to abandon it are predictable and tedious. Everyone already knows Lemmy is full of people who wouldn't touch Facebook with a 10 foot pole. Y'all are not contributing anything by crowing about it; you're just making noise.
I recently discovered Pixelfed and Friendica on the Fediverse. They are the equivalent to Instagram and Facebook, respectively. Perhaps now would be a good time to migrate over to those platforms?
Isn’t this just an additional paid option and the ad option is what everyone already had and everyone outside the EU still has?
Yup. Got it last week. Found this shit so disingemuous it almost pissed me off more than the privacy violation itself. I dont use any of Meta’s stuff except for WhatsApp out of necessity (some groups from the kids’ school), but i keep getting dumped into FB by busineses that dont have a proper webpage…
There's a missing third option: Don't use it at all.
Zuck is smoking some seriously strong weed if he is high enough to think anyone is going to pay to use Facebook, a service mind you that had been free since it’s inception.
Why even use facebook products
Same on IG
Oh no! Anyway...
If only I still had a Facebook account that required me to use this awful website.
y'all I think that we might finally be leaving the era of the internet where everything is free. overall, I think this is a good thing. the problem is that unless there's legislation preventing them these companies are absolutely gonna double dip; they'll charge you a fee and then sell your data anyway.

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