"Pay or Okay": 1,500 € a year for your online privacy?

Forced Consent & Consent Bypass The European Data Protection Board (EDPB) will soon decide about the future of free consent online. Following Meta’s introduction of a “Pay or Okay” system last year, the EDPB will issue a binding opinion. Should the approach be legitimised for Meta, companies across all industries could follow the social media giant’s lead. This could ultimately lead to the erosion of free consent online. But what’s the current situation in the member states? noyb collected data on the current implementation of the “Pay or Okay” approach in selected member states. In some of them, protecting your privacy already got extremely expensive. Open letter by 28 organisations to the EDPBFree consent is at risk. After the European Court of Justice (CJEU) declared Meta’s handling of user data illegal in July 2023, Meta switched to a “Pay or Okay” system to once again bypass the GDPR. Instead of asking its users for yes/no consent, the company charges them a fee for refusing i