Joy Agwunobi
Meta Platforms Inc. has announced plans to give European Union users greater control over the personal data they share for advertising on Facebook and Instagram, a move aimed at addressing mounting regulatory scrutiny over privacy and digital advertising practices.
The company’s commitment comes after the European Commission found Meta in breach of the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) in April 2025. Under the new framework, set to take effect in January 2026, EU users will be able to choose between sharing all their personal data to receive fully personalised ads or limiting the data shared for a more restricted ad experience.
“Meta will give users the effective choice between consenting to share all their data and seeing fully personalised advertising, and opting to share less personal data for an experience with more limited personalised advertising,” the European Commission said in a statement. This marks the first time Meta has offered such an option to its European audience.
The move follows a €200 million ($233 million) fine imposed on Meta earlier this year for breaching the DMA. The fine addressed Facebook and Instagram’s pay-or-consent model between November 2023 and November 2024, which the Commission said did not meet EU standards for transparency and consent. Meta has since revised its advertising model to use less personal data, in an effort to align with DMA requirements.
From January 2026, EU users of Facebook and Instagram will have the power to decide how much personal data Meta can use for advertising. Currently, the platforms rely on detailed user data including activity, interests, and online behaviour, to deliver highly personalised ads.
Under the new system, users can either maintain the fully personalised experience by sharing all their data or choose to limit data sharing, resulting in less targeted advertising.
Meta’s European regulatory challenges are part of a broader history of privacy violations and fines. In 2023, the company was hit with a record €1.2 billion penalty for transferring European Facebook users’ data to the U.S. without adequate safeguards, the largest sanction under the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The European Data Protection Board described the breach as “very serious” and mandated Meta to halt the transfers and comply within six months.
Beyond Europe, regulatory authorities have also acted against Meta. In 2024, Nigeria’s Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) fined the company $220 million after a 38-month investigation found evidence of unauthorised data sharing, privacy violations, and abuse of market dominance. Later that year, the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) imposed a separate $32.8 million fine alongside eight corrective orders related to behavioural advertising and non-consensual data processing, which Meta subsequently settled out of court.
