Key Points
Europes most famous privacy activist, Max Schrems, landed another blow against Meta today after the EUs top court ruled the tech giant cannot exploit users public statements about their sexual orientation for online advertising...
Schrems claims, based on data he obtained from the company, that advertisers using Meta can deduce his sexuality from proxies, such as his app logins or website visits..
Meta denies it showed Schrems personalized ads based on his off-Facebook data, and the company has long said it excludes any sensitive data it detects from its advertising operations...
With the data available to it, Meta Platforms Ireland is also able to identify Mr. Schrems interest in sensitive topics, such as sexual orientation, which enables it to direct targeted advertising at him...
The fact that Schrems had spoken publicly about his sexual identity does not authorize any platform to process related data to offer him personalized advertising, the court added...
