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Summary
- CMA has initiated a probe on Facebook to check the usage of advertising data
- The authority will also be auditing the online dating service -- Facebook Dating
- No conclusive decision on unfairness by Facebook has been taken so far
With the expansion of social media, massively increasing number of accounts, and deepening penetration of these applications have collectively refuelled the contextual advertising space. The expenditure share of the companies for paid promotions through social media channels have invariably grown phenomenally in the recent 5-6 years.
Over the course of the last decade, several news reports have unravelled the data safety and security issues of the consumers using these very applications. The events surrounding data breach, ransomware and unauthorised sharing of user’s data with third-party applications are some of the primary concerns with social media applications.
However, the social media companies and several conglomerates have come forward, defying such incidents and have reinstated the safety of user’s personal information on the web.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) of the United Kingdom on Friday, 04 June, 2021, declared that the body is probing California-headquartered social media juggernaut Facebook Inc (NASDAQ: FB) with regard to its dominant position in the social media and digital advertising doman.
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The competition regulator has been scrutinising Facebook to monitor the usage of a large array of advertising data. The detailed investigation into the matter involving Facebook has been launched to check whether the social media giant has gained an unfair advantage over the competitors in providing advertising services for classified advertorials and online dating posted on the web.
Under the inspection, the CMA will be exploring the methods of data acquisition and how these data sets are being used by the company. No conclusive decision on the unfairness by Facebook has been taken by the CMA, as the competitive authority has just started the evaluation.
Particularly, any unfairness in the operations of Facebook Marketplace, the separate section on the website where users and businesses are allowed to place classified advertisements for selling the products, will be analysed. Furthermore, the authority will be auditing the online dating service, Facebook Dating, which is operational in Europe from 2020. Any unjustifiable usage of the data gained from the single sign-on and advertising of Facebook will be probed under the inquiry.
Separately, the European Commission has also launched a scrutinisation over the data usage by Facebook. The CMA intends to work closely with the European Commission and all the other regulatory agencies to understand and tackle the global challenges that apparently affect the end consumers and pave the way for unfair market practices, effectively affecting the competition. Other than this, the CMA is individually probing Apple’s AppStore and privacy sandbox of Google.
