Spain’s parliament is launching an investigation into possible violations of European privacy laws by Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced on Wednesday.
A team of experts from Spain, the Netherlands, and Belgium had been investigating the issue for some time. Their findings reportedly revealed that Meta used a “hidden system” for nearly a year to track Android users on third-party websites.
According to the Spanish government, this system allowed Meta to collect data from other websites and link it to users’ identities on Facebook and Instagram.
Experts claim the mechanism operated even when users were in incognito mode or using a VPN.
These practices may violate several European regulations, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Spanish government stated.
Meta representatives will now be summoned to Spain’s parliament. Sanchez said they must guarantee that citizens’ rights and freedoms have not been “severely and systematically violated.”
In response, Meta told French news agency AFP that it “takes privacy very seriously” and offers users tools to control how their data is used.
The company added that it was “looking forward to engaging constructively with authorities on this matter.”
