Meta may change its entire personalised advertisement model across Facebook and Instagram in the UK following a landmark settlement.

Human rights campaigner Tanya O’Carroll first filed a lawsuit against Meta for £1.2tn in 2022, saying that the company’s terms and conditions around personalised advertisement went against UK data laws.

In the lawsuit, she demanded that Facebook and Instagram stop collecting and processing her data for the means of targeted advertisement. Her claim was backed by the UK’s data watchdog, the ICO, which could mean the case sets a precedent for the rest of the UK.

The UK’s data protection authority supported the case, and said that they would support other people in the UK who want to exercise their right to object to their data being processed for targeted advertisement.

“This is an individual settlement, but I believe its ramifications extend far beyond me,” said O’Carroll, reported by The Guardian. “The key factor is the UK data protection authority, which backed my case and has publicly stated that it will support people in the UK who wish to exercise their right to object to online targeted ads. I think that beyond the life of this case, the writing is on the wall for Meta – people want a choice on surveillance ads, and the right to object gives them exactly that.”

The ICO has said that people should have the right to opt out of their data being processed for targeted advertisements, and this choice should be “clear” to users.

Meta, however has come out against the ruling, saying that it takes its responsibilities under GDPR seriously.

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The company is now debating the possibility of creating a subscription service for UK users, which would create an ad-free version for a fee. This would mean that the free version not only has ads, but has targeted ads based on user data that Meta can then sell to data brokers for personalised advertisement. Meta’s current advertising model accounts for almost all of Meta’s revenue, about 98%.

The tech giant explained that Facebook and Instagram were free for UK consumers because of personalised advertising generated from personal data Meta collects and sells.

The subscription fee idea was first trialled in the EU after Meta was found in breach of GDPR as it did not have a legal basis for collecting the personalised data for targeted advertising.

The EU soon threw this model out, however, after it became clear that a pay or consent model did not offer users a genuinely free choice to not have their personal data collected and sold by the tech giant for targeted ads.

It remains to be seen how much of a ripple effect this current settlement will have on the UK, some regulators, like the Competition and Markets Authority, have been pressured by the government to take a more pro-business stance in an bid to stimulate economic growth. While the ICO is an independent regulator, it remains to be seen what action it will take following the case, or following any changes to Meta’s policy.