- Facebook and Instagram will soon offer an option without advertising to British users
- It will cost £ 2.99 per month, or £ 3.99 if the subscription on Android or iOS
- It will be the only way to fully avoid targeted announcements
A big change arrives on Facebook and Instagram in the United Kingdom, because in the coming weeks, users will have the opportunity to pay a monthly subscription to avoid advertisements.
The subscription is at the price of £ 2.99 (around $ 4 /6 $ in) per month on the web, or £ 3.99 (about $ 5.50 / 8) if you subscribe via iOS or Android (due to these platforms which take a reduction in costs), and if you choose to pay, you will get a free experience on the two platforms.
It should be noted that if you have several accounts, the subscription will be applied to each account that you have added to the Meta Accounts Center, but you will automatically be billed a reduced price of £ 2 (approximately $ 2.70 / $ 4 per month on the web or £ 3 (around $ 4 / $ 6 at) via iOS or Android for each additional account.
Put a price on confidentiality
As subscriptions are not too expensive, but since it is the only way to interact with these platforms without receiving targeted announcements, it does not seem ideal.
Essentially, this means that you have to pay Meta to respect your privacy, because although there are announcements of ads on their services to personalize what data advertisers have access, you cannot completely delete the targeted nature of advertisements.
This is why this change occurs, because the office of the Information Commissioner (ICO), which is the data guard dog of the United Kingdom, concluded that British users should be able to withdraw from targeted announcements.
Addressing The Guardian, an ICO spokesperson said: “This takes Meta away from targeting users with announcements as part of the standard terms and conditions of use of its Facebook and Instagram services, which we have been clear, does not comply with British law.”
Personally, this subscription does not like me – in part because I do not use these services much anyway, but also because I do not like the idea of having to pay to keep my private life. However, it is probably better than not having the choice, as has been the case so far.
An option that is not available is a free common ground for non -personalized advertisements. This is why Meta did not launch a similar offer in the EU, because the regulators said that the simple “binary choice” violates the law on digital markets (DMA).
Although it should be noted that even with the subscription, Meta will of course always collect your data to personalize its services, he will not use it to serve you ads. So, if you don’t trust Meta at all with your data, there is a simpler and cheaper solution – do not use its applications at all.
