The honest selfie-sharing app BeReal, which is popular with Gen Z, changed how it asks users to agree to tracking right after it was bought by the French mobile games company Voodoo this summer. A privacy report has been made against the pop-up that happened as a result. If the bloc’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is broken, companies can be fined up to 4% of their global annual sales.
European private rights not-for-profit Group The complaint, which was made by noyb, says that BeReal is using sneaky methods (also known as “dark patterns”) to get people to agree to ad tracking, which goes against the GDPR rule that says consent should be “freely given.”
Noyb says that European BeReal users have been shown a consent banner since July 2024. This banner seems to make it easy to agree or avoid tracking. But its gripe is about what happens after people click on the banner. Since it doesn’t give everyone the same experience, it’s said to be unfair and possibly illegal.
Noyb complained that BeReal uses a persistent “nudging strategy” to bother users who refuse to allow it to track them. Every time they try to make a post, the banner comes up again. Users who agree to be tracked, on the other hand, will never see the pop-up again.
In a press release about the complaint, noyb says, “This is a prime example of a so-called dark pattern, designed to manipulate the users’ decision and annoy them into consent.” “BeReal doesn’t seem to be able to handle a “rejection” when it comes to Europeans’ privacy rights.”
Lisa Steinfeld, a data security lawyer at noyb, said in a statement, “BeReal’s aggressive nudges are especially silly.” People think that the app respects their choice when they see the agreement banner for the first time, but BeReal won’t take no for an answer eventually. It is clear that BeReal is trying to get people to agree to be tracked.
Noyb uses 2022 guidance on dark patterns in social media interfaces written by the European Data Protection Board to support its claim that the technique isn’t GDPR-compliant. This guidance warns against “continuous prompting” strategies that ask users to consent over and over again, saying that users will “give in as they are tired of having to refuse the request every time they use the platform.”
It is very clear from the GDPR that consent is only valid if it is freely given, Steinfeld said. “Unfortunately, BeReal doesn’t seem to care and would rather make people agree to be tracked even if they don’t want to be.”
The company that owns the app, Voodoo, is based in France, so noyb has taken the matter to CNIL, which is the French data protection body. It wants the government to tell the app to fix the consent flow so it follows the GDPR’s rule of free choice and delete any data it has processed since adding the dark pattern. It also asks the CNIL to fine the company.
Someone from Voodoo has been asked to respond to the BeReal report.
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