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FACEBOOK IS CONCERNED a proposal to ban junk food ads aimed at children will impact the marketing of sports events and Spotify playlists.
The social media giant outlined its concerns in an email to Fianna Fáil justice spokesman Jim O’Callaghan following a meeting with the TD last December.
In November 2018, O’Callaghan proposed an amendment to section 30 of the Data Protection Act to protect children from ads related to junk food and drinks.
The proposed bill, which is currently before the Seanad for debate, aims to address the concerns of the Attorney General that section 30 was not in line with the the EU’s strict data protection rules know as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
O’Callaghan’s bill also aims to take on board the advice of the European Commission on balancing fundamental rights of the child with the fact that direct marketing is permitted under GDPR.
In correspondence seen by Fora, Facebook described the proposed bill as “very far-reaching” and said the wording of the amendment could entangle advertisements unrelated to junk food and drink.
The social network claimed the new bill could affect “positive marketing activities” aimed at children under the age of 18, such as advertisements for sports team events, sporting equipment, educational courses and campaigns promoting the likes of university open days.
The company also said Spotify and iTunes suggested playlists, news websites and health apps that rely on certain location data to profile customers could also be affected.
In the correspondence, Facebook said “we are not opposed to regulation, particularly where its aim is to protect children”.
“While we understand that the legislative intention behind the proposed section 30 is to target the marketing of junk foods and drinks at children, there is no such limitation contained in the proposal itself,” it said.
“As currently drafted the proposed section 30 .. would prohibit a range of data processing activities that involve an element of ‘automated processing’ of children’s personal data, regardless of any harm threshold.”
The company stated that it has already taken steps to prohibit the targeting of ads for products and services such as “alcohol, gambling, dating or ‘health’ (eg diet) products” to children who use Facebook.
Speaking to Fora, Jim O’ Callaghan said Facebook is entitled to oppose the amendment.
“My objective, however, is to introduce legislation that will be for the public benefit and that will tackle the ever increasing problem of childhood obesity,” he said.
Facebook declined to comment.
Note: This article was amended to reflect the fact that Facebook declined to comment on the matter.
Written by Laura Roddy and posted on Fora.ie
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Oh great. Now we’ll be hearing from all the armchair experts with blindingly simple solutions that the programmers didn’t think of because they were too busy eating their liga and colouring in with their crayons. I can’t wait.
@8bitplebian: I don’t eat liga when I’m coding lol
@Scorpionvenomm: Sorry, Farley’s.
They should turn it off and on again
“British Airways HAVE apologised to ITS customers…”
@Harry Whitehead: British Airways is the name of the company, singular. The airways themselves haven’t actually apologised.
If you are going to be pedantic, at least be right.
@Michael Doyle: If British Airways is to be treated as a singular noun, the correct verbal agreement would be HAS, not HAVE. Try reading it again.
@Harry Whitehead: Exactly. That’s why your original correction was incorrect.
My heads hurt.
@Neal Ireland Hello.: Err…mine wasn’t a correction. I was directly quoting the article. I used capitals to highlight the mistake. Either ‘has + its’ or ‘have + their’.
@Harry Whitehead: Lol, show how much the Irish care about the stranded passengers
@Harry Whitehead: maybe the article has been fixed since you read it first. Further down I do see “British Airways say” , which is conflicting.
@Michael Doyle: Yeah you’re right, it’s been fixed.
@Harry Whitehead: That explains it. Now we can get back to worrying about the group of passengers that are/is stranded.
@Michael Doyle: *WORRY WORRY WORRY WORRY WORRY WORRY WORRY…*
@Michael Doyle: Sorry, couldn’t resist.
I’m glad we got to the bottom of this, gentlemen.
There’s some good deals in pc world, maybe they should get down there
Resilience and redundancy plans anyone??
Probably cloud-based….
Look up its an empty sky.
go back to old system with ticketing, technology is weak, all it takes is one system to go down and the hole lot falls down, flights delayed, or cancelled no good to people travelling or missing connecting flights! then they dump you outside the airport to fend for yourself!
@Stephen Finn:
There is a whole lot wrong with that suggestion.
@Nick Allen: and yet you aren’t arsed pointing out exactly what is wrong with it.
I think you will find they were hacked, but not admitting to the fact. It seems impossible that they would have no redundancy or contingency plan if a data centre was struck by lightning.
Hugo Drax involvement I’ll warrant .
The cancellations also hit flights to Heathrow and Gatwick, I’m in Miami and two flights from here today were cancelled. The staff on the desks said nine flights from New York were also cancelled, they were still suffering a lot of computer glitches while trying to transfer us to alternative flights with different airlines. I was in a queue for about 90 minutes and it then took about another 20 minutes for the desk agent to convince his computer to book me onto a new flight.
I somehow read the hashtag as ‘competence outage’.
Word on the street is the Indians screwed up!!!!!!
have your say