Facebook plans to circumvent adblockers is illegal in EU

On August 9th 2016, Facebook issued a press release stating they intend to change the way they deal with adblocking on their web site.

Andrew Bosworth, VP of Ads & Business Platform for Facebook states: 

Quote

"We’ve designed our ad formats, ad performance and controls to address the underlying reasons people have turned to ad blocking software. When we asked people about why they used ad blocking software, the primary reason we heard was to stop annoying, disruptive ads. As we offer people more powerful controls, we’ll also begin showing ads on Facebook desktop for people who currently use ad blocking software."

(Emphasis added)

However, In February this year, we obtained a letter from the European Commission stating that such activites in Europe would be a breach of Regulation 2002/58/EC (known as the ePrivacy Directive).  The letter was in response to questions we asked the European Commission specifically with regards to the detection and circumvention of adblocking tools and whether or not such activities would be lawful under European laws and regulations.

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