Spain’s data protection watchdog, AEPD, has mandated the provisional suspension of two Meta (META.O) products intended for use in the forthcoming European elections on Instagram and Facebook, the agency announced on Friday.
The tools in question, named “Election Day Information” (EDI) and “Voter Information Unit” (VIU), were flagged for potentially violating Spanish data protection regulations under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), according to the AEPD.
A Meta spokesperson responded to the directive, stating, “Our election tools have been expressly designed to respect users’ privacy and comply with the GDPR. While we disagree with the AEPD’s assessment in this case, we have cooperated with their request.”
The AEPD revealed that Meta plans for all eligible Instagram and Facebook users in the European Union to receive voting reminders via VIU and EDI. However, the watchdog found the proposed data processing methods to be in conflict with Spanish data protection laws. The AEPD cited breaches of key GDPR principles, including lawfulness, data minimisation, and limitation of retention periods.
Meta’s approach, which involves identifying eligible voters based on user profile data such as city of residence and IP addresses, was deemed problematic by the AEPD. The agency pointed out that the right to vote in the European elections is solely contingent upon being an adult national of any EU member state, irrespective of current residence.
Labeling Meta’s data treatment practices as “unnecessary, disproportionate and excessive,” the AEPD highlighted concerns about excluding EU citizens living abroad and inaccurately targeting non-EU nationals residing in Europe. Furthermore, the agency criticized the collection of age data, arguing there was no reliable method to verify self-reported ages, and described the processing of interaction data as “totally disproportionate” to the stated aim of election information dissemination.
The AEPD also noted that Meta had not sufficiently justified the need for retaining the data post-election, suggesting an ulterior motive for the data processing operation.