Recently, I clicked on the app of Instagram and a wall message popped up. I had to read it first and make a choice before I could use the app like I am used to. I find these sorts of messages always very disturbing, but the content of this particular message was even more disturbing than the message itself this time.
Maybe you got the message yourself too. The message is about beginning a subscription or using the free version of Facebook and Instagram. This subscription that I am talking about, seems to be a new sort of subscription rolled out by Meta, namely one to use your accounts on Facebook and Instagram without bumping into advertisements all the time.
To me, a student with a language major, it is also the way the message is written that caught my attention. The message starts with: “The legislation in your region is going to change. That is why we give you a new choice when it comes to how we use your data for advertisements. You will perceive more information before you confirm your choice” [my translation from the Dutch message].
The new choice is: to choose to pay for a subscription without advertisements or choose not to pay for a subscription and keep on using Instagram with advertisements (like we all do now).
But there is more to this subscription…
The last sentence of the (short) information about this new subscription is as follows: “Your data will not be used for advertisements” [my translation from the Dutch message I got].
That made me wonder: is this subscription about not getting distracted by advertisements any longer every time you use Instagram, or is this subscription about paying for your privacy?
To me, at first glance, I thought it was about getting less distracted. And then I read the part about not having your data used for advertisement purposes and it hit me: no, wait, I am paying for not having my data used.
And since this is a new legislation, this means that at the moment we all accepted that our data is being used. And that is something I am aware of, but still, now we get this ‘other possibility’ it made me realize it even more, I think.
Especially since this ‘other option’ is paying. To some people, this is not a choice. It is using the app for free or not using the app since a monthly cost of 12,99 euros is too much for some. I wonder if this could have any consequences regarding the population that will be using the app for some time.
The worst case could maybe be that on the one hand, we have the people who are not able to pay for this privacy and whose data gets used because they do want to be included in the digital world, and on the other hand the more financially wealthy people who can permit staying in the digital world but also keeping their own data.
And the third group, who signs off.
What do you think about this ‘choice’ Instagram gives us? Is it really a choice? And what would you do or what alternative choices would you like to see?
Great blog post! Thank you so much for putting this together, it is shedding light on some very important information. I do have to say, however, that as much as I have enjoyed reading your work, it has also made me feel angry and scared at the same time. I feel like this new concept of paying for no ads (but as you accurately wrote, it could be perceived as paying for your privacy instead) that Meta came up with really is the peak of Capitalism. Social media has been centring around making money out of their users for years now, but I feel like Meta just took it to a completely different extent. I am personally not sure what this means for us as a society, but I can answer your question about whether we have a choice or not with certainty. We don’t. Not only that many people just do not have the means to pay this kind of money for something so ridiculous, but even if they would, is there really some type of certainty that our data will stay private? Highly doubt it. It just seems like another elaborate scheme to get more money out of people who are desperately trying to protect their digital data. Certainly disappointing, but not surprising. I am personally very curious about how this will develop and how people will react.
I think it is awful what is happening. These companies keep getting greedier with the time. I believe it is not okay to sell someone’s data at all unless they consent to it. To make someone pay for it, is even worse.
There is a fourth option: people moving to another social platform where there is some respect for privacy left. Privacy is a human right.
This is such an interesting topic, and so relevant to think about. In an environment where we all feel very natural to just skip through things without reading it carefully, Meta easily slides this new stuff onto us without most of the people realizing what it actually is that they are accepting to. In the long run it is a very good business model for Meta; first you make everyone addicted to your medium and after a few years you implement certain models in which people will have to pay. But as previously mentioned in a comment, I also see this as a peak of capitalism where the consequences of these actions on people are not taken into legitimate concern.