Austrian privacy regulator declares Meta and Facebook pixels illegal

The Austrian privacy regulator DSB has declared Meta and Facebook’s tracking pixel illegal in an assessment of a complaint from the Noyb privacy foundation. It is still unknown what the consequences will be.

According to DSB, which stands for Datenschutz Behörde, the transmission of data to data centers in the USA cannot be ruled out when using the tracking pixel. Because the US government under US jurisdiction can request user data upon request, Meta does not adequately protect user data. The decision can be appealed.

According to Noyb Meta can only stop the infringement of the GDPR by storing data of European users in Europe or the US government must change the law so that the mandatory transfer of private data is no longer possible.

The Austrian regulator is the first to comment on Meta’s tracking pixel. This also happened some time ago with Google Analytics, after which more regulators said that the use of Google Analytics violates the GDPR.