Schrems wins decade-long fight against Meta to obtain full access to data

The Austrian Supreme Court has issued a final judgment after eleven years, ordering Meta to provide privacy activist Max Schrems full access to all data collected about him within 14 days. The ruling requires Meta to disclose all data sources, recipients, and purposes, rejecting the company's arguments about trade secrets. 

Lawyer Katharina Raabe-Stuppning noted that the ruling provides an unprecedented level of transparency, exceeding the company's standard data download tools. The ruling will have far-reaching implications as it is enforceable throughout the EU. The decision concludes over a decade of legal resistance by Meta, providing a rare insight into the company’s internal data processing operations for European users.

In a statement, Schrems said: "Platforms like Facebook or Instagram have huge influence, for example via pushing political views on users. It was always absurd for Meta to claim that it does not process such data and must not comply with the law. The decision makes clear that Meta must not use such user preferences without explicit consent by each user."

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