Meta being fined $100k a day for personalized ads in Norway

SELECTstarFROMreddit@sh.itjust.works to Technology@lemmy.world – 1042 points –
Meta's behavioral ads banned in Norway on Facebook and Instagram
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$100k is nothing to these people. It's like your or I paying $0.25 a day. They see it as the cost of doing business.

Norway has a population of 5-6 mil. I don't think there's enough of them to generate 100k/day, is there? Or maybe that's worth it, what do I know? They're not gonna get fined that much anyway

Based on https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/120114/how-does-facebook-fb-make-money.asp 39$/user/year for Facebook & Messenger alone. In a country of 5-6M people, let's say 5.5M, with 70% of the population being users ( from: https://www.statista.com/statistics/584917/facebook-users-in-norway-by-age-group/ ), that gives ~3.85M users * 39$ = 150.15M$/year, 12.5M$/month, or 417k$/day. Norway is a rich country, so one should assume a Norway user's revenue is higher than the 39$ average.

So, 100k$/day is certainly a decent figure for Norway's operations, meaning a local Facebook senior manager must be in panic right now. But Would that local senior manager have any power to change anything given Norway is such a small market but yielding would set a precedent for all other EU members? That's what is at stake!

Is there a /c/theydidthemath anywhere? Good work.

Damn, thanks for the reply. That was definitely not what I was expecting. But now that I read it.. it makes total sense

Damn, thanks for the reply. That was definitely not what I was expecting. But now that I read it.. it makes total sense

It should be a number "per user" "per day" not just a "per day". Make it really hurt based on how much it's being done.

Or just make a cost per day that is punitive.

If I did something outright evil and criminal, and my only punishment was a $0.25 fine, I would feel motivated to keep doing it again.

My point is that the costs shouldn't be the same if you do something evil to one user, vs a million. If it were, it's just a loss leader until I can make more than I lose.

The cost should be something that guarantees you can never profit from it.

Let's just double the amount of ads in Norway to cover the loss.

I mean, any money flowing from them to nation is good at the end of the day.

Right, but it's not really about getting money for their country. Or at least it shouldn't be.

It's about punishing corporations for not following their laws/regulations, and making the consequences onerous enough to dissuade them and others from doing it again.