Gambling companies allegedly grant Facebook access to customer data without consent
According to the Guardian’s Observer, gambling operators are secretly tracking website users and transferring their information to Facebook's parent corporation Meta without their knowledge.
Meta is then said to use the data to profile users as gamblers and overwhelm them with advertisements for online casinos and bookmakers.
The Observer claims that numerous gambling websites in the UK have a secret monitoring technology that has been collecting information from users, including what they watch and click on, and sending it to Facebook.
According to UK law, users of websites that utilize such tools must provide their consent before data may be used or shared for marketing purposes. However, the Observer's examination of 150 gambling websites, including online bingo, sports betting, and virtual casinos, revealed numerous violations of data protection laws. The websites Hollywoodbets, Sporting Index, Bwin, Lottoland, 10Bet, and Bet442 were among those identified to have sent data to Facebook without authorization.
Based on network traffic monitoring, 52 out of the 150 websites the Observer evaluated automatically exchanged data using the Meta Pixel tracking technology without the users' agreement.
Before the user clicked to accept or reject ads, the data was shared automatically when the website loaded. The reporter never consented to the usage of their information for marketing purposes during the testing.
Following the illegal data exchange, they were inundated with Facebook advertisements for gambling websites, suggesting that Meta had profiled them as a gambling enthusiast.
They saw gambling advertisements from 49 businesses within a single surfing session, including websites that had illegally shared their data. This includes dozens of smaller firms as well as betting companies like Ladbrokes, Sky Bet, BetVictor, Tombola, and Bet365 that were not aware of the illegal data sharing and whose own usage of Meta Pixel was legal.
Measures to outlaw cross-selling, in which businesses target current clients with advertisements for other aspects of their business, have been unveiled by the Gambling Commission. However, there is nothing stopping businesses from using third-party profiling, like that done by Meta, to try to attract new clients.
Meta cited its terms and conditions, which state that businesses must get consent before providing data, but did not address the Observer's findings. According to a spokesman, "We educate advertisers on properly setting up business tools."
According to Statista, the annual advertising revenue of Meta platforms for 2024 has reached $160,6 billion. Notably, the company has never publicly disclosed its earnings from gambling ads.
