The gambling company is secretly tracking visitors to its website and sending data to Facebook’s parent company without obtaining consent, a clear violation of data protection laws.
Meta, the owner of Facebook, uses this data to profile individuals as gamblers and bombard them with ads from casinos and betting sites, as reported by the observer. Hidden tracking tools embedded in many UK gambling websites extract visitor data and share it with social media companies.
According to the law, data should only be used and shared for marketing purposes with explicit permission from users on the website. However, an investigation by the observer found numerous violations across 150 gambling sites.
A call for immediate intervention was made by Ian Duncan Smith, chairman of the All-Parliamentary Group on Gambling Reform, criticizing the illegal use of tools like Metapixel without consent. Concerns were raised about the lack of regulation and accountability in the gambling industry.
Data sharing and profiling practices by gambling operators are raising concerns about targeted advertising and potential harm to individuals. The Information Committee (ICO) has taken action against companies like Sky Betting & Gaming for illegally processing personal data.
The gambling industry is under scrutiny for its marketing strategies, with calls for stricter regulations to protect consumers. Meta and other social media platforms are being called out for their role in facilitating these illegal data practices.
Concerns about the misuse of Metapixel tracking tools extend beyond the gambling industry to other sectors, prompting calls for more transparency and accountability in data collection and usage.
Source: www.theguardian.com
