The company Meta, owner of Facebook and Instagram, is studying a payment system for users in the European Union on these social networks. The cost of this new version without ads would not exceed 13 euros per month, as reported this Monday by the Wall Street Journal.
Payment would not be mandatory in any case, but the zero-cost option that Meta would offer its clients would be to access these applications and receive personalized ads, a fact that implies that the platform would have access to the searches carried out by users.
The payment alternative without ads on mobile phones would cost about 13 euros per month; this would be the most expensive version due to Apple and Google commissions. On computers, the fee to obtain this same advantage would be worth about 10 euros. Finally, for users with additional accounts, they would pay 6 euros more for each of these if they wish to contract this ad-free version.
The proposal is an attempt by Meta to circumvent EU regulations that threaten to curb its ability to personalize ads for users without their consent and harm its main source of income.
With this new plan, the company would maintain the right to continue with ad personalization by offering the possibility of choosing between the paid subscription and the free version.
In this way, if the majority of customers agree to use the applications at zero cost, they would give their permission to personalized ads and the company could continue with its same business, since EU regulations only prohibit personalized advertising when there is no user consent.
Despite the problems that Meta has had in the past with European authorities due to its poor data protection policy for its users and the subsequent fines it has had to bear in this regard, Mark Zuckerberg’s company is confident that This ad-free subscription version will roll out in the coming months in Europe.
In statements made to the Wall Street Journal, a spokesperson for the company stated that Meta believes in “free services that rely on personalized ads.” In turn, he added that they also explore “options to ensure that the “data protection regulations” of the European Union.
