Mikołaj Barczentewicz on ‘Pay or OK’

ICLE Senior Scholar Miko?aj Barczentewicz was quoted by IAPP News in a story about European privacy regulators’ deliberations over whether paid social-media accounts should be deemed to comply with the General Data Protection Regulation. You can read full piece here.

In terms of consumer impact, EU citizens are protected from an imbalance of power within the GDPR that states citizens have the right to refuse to allow companies to process personal data. University of Surrey associate professor in Law and University of Oxford Research Associate Miko?aj Barczentewicz said the “scale” of impact or invasiveness of the data processed could be subjective.

…Alternatives to the “pay or OK” model do exist, according to Barczentewicz. Contextual advertising that allows companies to provide services through funding presents a solution for consumers who want to protect their data without paying a fee. However, social media platforms may not be able to secure contextual advertising with advertisers looking to market to a specific audience that could be found through targeted ads.

An EDPB position that does not balance user and business interests has risks to all, Barczentewicz said. He indicated the best way to avoid those risks is for all parties to speak their minds regarding potential impacts and hardships.

“My recommendation for businesses, the ones that rely on online advertising, or targeted advertising, is to make their voices known publicly,” Barczentewicz said. “For example, if they can show that moving from personalized advertising to contextual advertising would make it impossible to serve some cohorts of users, well, that would be the kind of data that would be very helpful at this stage in the public conversation.”