EU Court ： Meta must limit data for personalized ads

The Court of Justice for the European Union (CJEU) ruled in favor of privacy campaigner Max Schrems, who complained that Facebook misused his personal data about his sexual orientation to target ads at him.

The Court decided on two questions: First, massively limiting the use of personal data for online advertisements. Secondly, limiting the use of publicly available personal data to the originally intended purposes for publication.

In complaints first heard by Austrian courts in 2020, Mr Schrems said he was targeted with adverts aimed at gay people despite never sharing information about his sexuality on the platform.

The CJEU said on Friday that data protection law does not unequivocally allow the company to use such data for personalized adverting.

"An online social network such as Facebook cannot use all of the personal data obtained for the purposes of targeted advertising, without restriction as to time and without distinction as to type of data," it said.

Data relating to someone’s sexual orientation, race or ethnicity or health status is classed as sensitive and carries strict requirements for processing under EU data protection law.