UK users of Facebook and Instagram will be offered the option to pay a subscription fee for an ad-free service, Meta has announced following a UK privacy case.

The Information Commissioner’s Office has been supportive of the move, which was driven by a privacy case brought up by human rights campaigner Tanya O’Carroll over Facebook’s collection of her personal data for the use of third-party advertising without her consent. The ICO found that Meta’s practices were out with the UK GDPR at the time, supporting O’Carroll’s lawsuit principles.

Now, in order to avoid having their data being used for personal advertisements on Facebook and Instagram, users in the UK will be given two options: pay a subscription fee to the company, or leave the platform.

There will be no free option to still use the social platforms without forfeiting personal data to Facebook and Instagram’s advertisers.

The free version, which will still be available, will mean users will see personalised ads and their personal data will be sold to third-party advertisers.

Meta said they were making the change “in response to recent regulatory guidance from the ICO.

“It will give people in the UK a clear choice about whether their data is used for personalised advertising, while preserving the free access and value that the ads-supported internet creates for people, businesses and platforms.”

This is of course, removing a third option – Meta could offer a free version that runs advertisements, but does not use and sell personal data from its billions of users for targeted behavioural adds. However, it is not offering this as an option, meaning that users will have to pay a premium for different privacy settings and standards.

Meta has said that its subscription fee will be at the lowest on the market – users over 18 in the UK will allow them to pay Meta £2.99 a month via web browsers, or £3.99 a month on the Apple app store or Android app store, in order to stop seeing ads and to prevent their data from being sold to targeted advertisers.

Non-ad content across the website will still be tailored using personalised data, but this data will not be used to show ads when a user subscribes.

Meta tried the same tactic in the EU following a landmark case that found its advertising practices to be non-compliant with the EU’s GDPR.

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This subscription model, deemed Pay-or-Consent, was met with controversy and was ultimately thrown out of the EU for violating the Digital Markets Act. The Act requires companies operating in the EU to provide an equivalent but free experience if users do not consent to the processing of their personal data for targeted advertising.

The ICO says that it will monitor the new subscription fee’s rollout, saying it will “ensure consumers are empowered to make choices and are able to give their consent freely.” This of course, is impossible, since they would have to literally pay a price, and then the option is not “free”.

For this, however, the ICO received praise from Meta for its “constructive approach” which “sets the UK apart from the European Union.”