A Spanish data watchdog has put the brakes on two Meta election products that were supposed to be rolled out ahead of the upcoming European elections.
Spain’s Data Protection Agency has suspended Meta’s election day and voter information unit products over concerns they may have collected unnecessary election data from Facebook users and Instagram, the agency announced on May 31.
The products reportedly reminded Facebook and Instagram users of the European Parliament elections, which are due to begin on June 6.
But the Spanish Data Protection Agency said Meta would be able to “process personal data such as, among others, username, IP address, age and gender”, in potential violation of the European Union General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR. The agency’s suspension remains in effect for 3 months.
“The Agency considers that the collection and storage of data planned by the company would seriously endanger the rights and freedoms of Instagram and Facebook users, who would see an increase in the volume of information collected by Meta about them, thus enabling more complex and detailed information and exhaustive profiling, and generating more intrusive processing,” reads a translation of the agency’s press release.
In a statement to Reuters, Meta said it complies with European data regulations.
“Our election tools were expressly designed to respect user privacy and comply with the GDPR. Although we disagree with the AEPD’s assessment in this matter, we have cooperated with their request,” a company spokesperson told Reuters.
A spokesperson for Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
The suspension comes after the European Commission, the EU’s executive body, opened an investigation in April into Meta’s “policies and practices relating to misleading advertising and political content on its services.” In response, a Meta spokesperson told Reuters that the company has a “well-established process for identifying and mitigating risks on our platforms.”
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