Meta to offer ‘less personalized ads’ in concession to EU

livemint.com:

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Meta Platforms plans to give European users of Instagram and Facebook the option of receiving what it says are “less personalized ads," a concession to regulators that risks hitting the company’s revenue in one of its largest markets. The social-media company plans in coming days to begin prompting users in Europe with the choice of the new ad format, without paying a fee, according to people briefed on the plans.

The less-personalized format will show European users what Meta calls contextual ads based on content that a user sees during a given browsing session, rather than a user’s broader activity history, like the ads most users now see peppered into their feeds and stories on Meta’s apps. Some of the new ads—which will also be targeted based on age, gender and location—will cover the whole screen and be unskippable for a few seconds. Meta’s new ad option comes amid pressure from European Union regulators who say users should have access to a free version of the company’s apps with less-personalized ads.

Meta has long resisted giving users a no-fee way to avoid having their in-app digital activity used for advertising purposes because it risks cannibalizing the company’s main source of revenue: highly targeted ads selected using data it gathers about its users, including which posts they share and which videos they watch. The company also says personalized ads make for a better experience for users and advertisers. The financial consequences of the move aren’t clear, and partly depend on how many users change their ad preferences.