Do you seriously believe that ad-free means they're not still tracking the hell outta you and aggregating from many sources you probably don't know about like Patreon and shit?

Edit: and on the subject of personalized ads, I find it more worriesome when you can't see whats going on. Its a weird paradox

I would happily pay (not for Facebook, but as a general consideration) if you would give me an ads free eperience AND stop gathering data from me.

I choose violence.

Oh man I get to pay AND have my data taken? Collected by the corporation and stolen by hackers? What an amazing company, truly the leaders of the future of the web Meta is

I can think of a third option. Send me $20 and I'll disclose the secret.

I wonder how the EU is gonna like those two options

Option 3 : Delete your FB profile, and live peacefully ever after 😀

I choose death.

Pay or not. They will still sell your data

I choose option three.

To fully delete your Facebook account, you would need to go through Facebook's account deletion process. I can guide you through the steps:

1. Click on the account menu down arrow at the top right of any Facebook page in your web browser.
2. Select 'Settings & Privacy', then click 'Settings'.
3. Look for the 'Your Facebook Information' section.
4. Click on 'Deactivation and Deletion'.
5. Choose 'Permanently Delete Account', then click 'Continue to Account Deletion'.
6. Follow the instructions to confirm the deletion.

Remember that once your account is deleted, it cannot be recovered. If you wish to keep the data, make sure to download a copy of your information before deleting your account.

If you're logged in, you can directly go to the deletion page using this link: Delete My Account

Just copy and paste the URL into your web browser's address bar. Note that you may need to log in to Facebook again to access this page.

Well, the third option is there too and seems the best: don't use Facebook/meta at all.

This is more than likely illegal in the EU...

Does anyone still even use Facebook? Aside from boomer parents? TikTok, not THAT'S a data mining platform!

I choo-choo-choose uBlock Origin.

You should delete your account as mentioned here. The second step is creating a new account and pretending you're under 18. It will be free without targeted ads.

Repeat the process periodically.

Well, your decision to finally leave that hellhole is overdue then.

To add more context to it -

Meta is actually trying to comply circumvent EU's strict privacy policy.

Recently, The EU's top court said in July that Meta must first get consent before showing ads to users - a ruling that jeopardises the company's ability to make money by tailoring advertisements for individual users based on their online interests and digital activity.

Source: https://www.euronews.com/next/2023/10/03/meta-could-charge-facebook-and-instagram-users-in-eu-to-go-ad-free-to-comply-with-privacy-

The statement reads well, and I'll take them at their word, but if an algorithm exists to show you "relevant" content, they're collecting data and using it keep you on the platform.

This has been my issue with 'social media' for the past ten(?) years. As soon as Instagram switch the default from chronological to what it thinks you want to see, it's continued to be more and more shitified (so much that I no longer use it).

The beauty of the early days of social media was that it was real-time. I could see who was doing what right now. I could see what establishments were hosting events tonight. Instead, these platforms decided it was more to their benefit to show posts it thinks will keep you on the platform longer - to show you more ads. For me, this lead to finding out days later that things have happened I would have like to have done.

Wall Street run Social Media is garbage. Businesses, organizations, governments, etc., need to go back to publishing content on their own websites (or the Fediverse) and enabling RSS feeds.

This is more than likely illegal in the EU...