O’Carroll v Meta: Facebook agrees to stop targeting ads to the plaintiff.
March 25, 2025 |
Tanya O’Carroll commenced proceedings against Meta seeking orders that Facebook stop using her personal data to create targeted ads on subjects that it believed she would be interested in. She argued that Facebook’s campaign was direct marketing under the UK legislation. Meta has settled the claim agreeing to stop sending targeting advertisements using her personal information. The Information Commissioner’s Office is very happy. So happy that it issued a statement. The ICO has always regarded targeted advertising as being direct marketing under the legislation.it intervened in the case with an amicus curiae brief.
Under the Australian Privacy Act 1988 Australian Privacy Principle 7 addresses direct marketing directly, with the key issues being:
- APP 7 provides that an organisation must not use or disclose personal information it holds for the purpose of direct marketing unless an exception applies. APP 7 may also apply to an agency in the circumstances set out in s 7A.
- Direct marketing involves the use or disclosure of personal information to communicate directly with an individual to promote goods and services.
- Where an organisation is permitted to use or disclose personal information for the purpose of direct marketing, it must always:
- allow an individual to request not to receive direct marketing communications (also known as ‘opting out’), and
- comply with that request.
- An organisation must, on request, provide its source for an individual’s personal information, unless it is impracticable or unreasonable to do so.
There has been no similar case in Australia to O’Carroll v Meta. There is a basis for making the same argument here given the content of APP 7.
The ICO statement provides:
An ICO spokesperson said:
“People have the right to object to their personal information being used for direct marketing, and we have been clear that online targeted advertising should be considered as direct marketing.
“Organisations must respect people’s choices about how their data is used. This means giving users a clear way to opt out of their data being used in this way.
“If people believe that an organisation is not complying with their request to stop processing their data, they can file a complaint to us. We will continue to engage with Meta on this issue.”
A BBC article on the story provides:
Facebook has agreed to stop targeting adverts at an individual user using personal data after she filed a lawsuit against its parent company, tech giant Meta.
Tanya O’Carroll, 37, who lives in London and works in the tech policy and human rights sector, said it would open a “gateway” for other people wanting to stop the social media company from serving them adverts based on their demographics and interests.
The Information Commissioner’s Office, the UK’s data watchdog, said online targeted advertising should be considered direct marketing.
In a statement, Meta said it provided “robust settings and tools for users to control their data and advertising preferences”.
Ms O’Carroll, who created her Facebook account about 20 years ago, filed a lawsuit against Meta in 2022, asking it to stop using her personal data to fill her social media feeds with targeted adverts based on topics it thought she was interested in.
“I knew that this kind of predatory, invasive advertising is actually something that we all have a legal right to object to,” Ms O’Carroll told Radio 4’s Today Programme.
“I don’t think we should have to accept these unfair terms where we consent to all that invasive data tracking and surveillance.”
It was when she found out she was pregnant in 2017 that she realised the extent to which Facebook was targeting adverts at her.
She said the adverts she got “suddenly started changing within weeks to lots of baby photos and other things – ads about babies and pregnancy and motherhood”.
“I just found it unnerving – this was before I’d even told people in my private life, and yet Facebook had already determined that I was pregnant,” she continued.
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) legislation controls how personal information is used by organisations.
Ms O’Carroll’s lawsuit argued that Facebook’s targeted advertising system was covered by the UK’s definition of direct marketing, giving individuals the right to object.
Meta said that adverts on its platform could only be targeted to groups of a minimum size of 100 people, rather than individuals, so did not count as direct marketing. But the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) disagreed.
“Organisations must respect people’s choices about how their data is used,” a spokesperson for the ICO said. “This means giving users a clear way to opt out of their data being used in this way.”
Ms O’Carroll said that Meta had agreed to stop using her personal data for direct marketing purposes, “which in non-legalese means I’ve essentially been able to turn off all the creepy, invasive, targeted ads on Facebook”.
She said that she did not want to stop using Facebook, saying that it is “filled with all of those connections and family and friends, and entire chapters of my life”.
Ms O’Carroll said she hoped her individual settlement would make it easier for others who wanted Facebook to stop giving them targeted adverts.
“If other people want to exercise their right, I believe they now have a gateway to do so knowing that the UK regulator will back them up,” she said.
Meta said it disagreed with Ms O’Carroll’s claims, adding “no business can be mandated to give away its services for free.”
A spokesperson added: “Facebook and Instagram cost a significant amount of money to build and maintain, and these services are free for British consumers because of personalised advertising.”
“Our services support British jobs and economic growth by connecting businesses with the people most likely to buy their products, while enabling universal access to online services regardless of income. We will continue to defend its value while upholding user choice and privacy.”
Facebook and Instagram have a subscription service in most of Europe, where users can pay monthly so that they don’t get ads on the platform.
The Meta spokesperson said the company was “exploring the option” of offering a similar service to UK users and would “share further information in due course.”