WhatsApp is getting ads using personal data from Instagram and Facebook

Forced Consent & Consent Bypass Meta announced today that it also wants to introduce ads on WhatsApp, which will be based on personal data from Facebook and Instagram. This further integrates WhatsApp into other Meta services - an originally independent app, which initially was available for just $1 per year without ads or data usage. This also means that Meta is consolidating its social networking monopoly. EU law was actually supposed to prevent this.Meta's announcementReport by TechCrunch Probably not legal: DMA and GDPR. When Meta bought WhatsApp in 2014, there were fears of a merger and an increase of the company's monopoly power. The EU Commission waved through Meta's purchase of WhatsApp nonetheless. Now, with the new Digital Markets Act (DMA) in place, the EU pledged to restrict the dominance of big tech monopolies. Article 5(2) of the DMA requires freely given user consent when companies want to link data across services. Similarly, the GDPR requires “freely given” consent