On November 7, Facebook welcomed a large number of Hungarian users with the decision to continue using the social network. The paid version recently announced by Meta has arrived in Hungary, the essence of which is that for a monthly fee, Facebook (and Instagram) will not display ads and the company will not use user data for ads.
The monthly subscription fee is 10 euros, but only if you subscribe to the browser version of the service, if you do this in an application downloaded via the Android or iOS app store, you will have to pay 13 euros (4990 forints) per month – and Mark Zuckerberg Because in this case, his company imposes on users an inevitable 30 percent “tax” from app stores.
The subscription applies to all accounts linked in the Account Center until March 1, 2024. In Hungary, if we pay the said amount via the Blue Social Page, for example, we will also get ad-free access to the Instagram profile(s) connected to the account until the specified date. However, from March next year, you’ll have to pay the equivalent of €6 per linked profile if you want an ad-free service through it. Naturally, subscription fees for smartphone apps are higher than this additional fee of 8 euros per profile.
Maybe it’s not over yet
Meta offers this option in accordance with EU legislation, after the Irish Data Protection Authority imposed a fine of 390 million euros (151 billion HUF) on the company in the summer, because Meta cannot send users online ads selected based on their activity. Meta then announced that it would require users’ consent for targeted ads, and would offer the opportunity to have an ad-free version – which also means that subscriber data will not be collected in the future, as is the case for targeted ads. . There was a need.
In light of all this, it is an interesting turn of events that the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) adopted a binding decision on 27 October, directing the Irish data protection regulator, which has jurisdiction over Meta’s European operations, to prohibit behavior-based processing of personal data. Within two weeks, processing for advertising purposes throughout the European Economic Area (EEA). By its own admission, Meta was surprised by the decision, as the company says its subscription model announced on October 30 meets current regulatory requirements.
It is also important not to confuse the ad-free version with other paid solutions of Meta, also presented this year, and with which you can buy a blue tick for profiles, similar to the previous Twitter, and now X, among other things. The company made this option available in the first half of the year, and we reported on the perks associated with it in a separate article.
While preparing our article A Google Trends We also used your data.
