iOS 19 and iOS 20 Must Include a Long List of Major Changes, EU Says

[surferfb]

The law requires freely given consent to tracking and an option to opt out of tracking. The fact that companies cannot offer free products with tracking vs paid without is a good thing. Companies are required to gain freely given consent to track, that is the rule. If Facebook cannot make money this way, then Facebook will go out of business (in the EU).

I disagree with this wholeheartedly. First choosing to use the service that tracks you, when a paid option that does not track you exists, is freely giving consent. No one is forcing you to use the product.

Secondly, if the EU wants to require to offer an option that is free and not to track that is one thing, but then to demand that Facebook also can't increase the number of ads or show unskippable ads to make up the difference, really amounts to forcing Meta to chose between giving its product away for free and being able to do business. That sort of logic belongs in communist countries, not supposed free-market democracies.

Shouldn't companies ought to be able to charge what they think their product is worth and let the free market decide?

The EU can absolutely require businesses to offer their products in a way that complies with the law. If that cannot be done profitably then perhaps you might consider that the business was not inherently a viable one to begin with?

Let me rephrase, yes the EU can absolutely require Meta to do this, but it's an affront to the free market and they should be ashamed of themselves for doing so. And this kind of mindset is why the EU has one consumer tech company of note.