Meta has launched Threads in the UK, but not the EU because of data concerns. I wrote about that here.

Others are raising concerns about Meta's approach to data protection. For example, Calli Schroeder, senior counsel and global privacy counsel at the Electronic Privacy Information Center has said: "I haven’t seen any evidence that Meta is being transparent about what it will do with sensitive personal data."

Carissa Veliz, an associate professor at the Institute for Ethics in AI at the University of Oxford, has also questioned Meta's collection of sensitive data.

Meta spokesperson Emil Vazquez, said the company internally filters out sensitive data including health information, sexual orientation and religious views from being used in advertising.

Protecting data is no doubt top of Meta's list as, in May 2023, it received the largest-ever GDPR fine: $1.2bn by the Irish Data Protection Commissioner. You can't blame them for wanting to ensure they have everything in order before they launch in the EU. The largest data fine it has received in UK was for £500,000 - the maximum pre (UK) GDPR - over the Cambridge Analytica saga. Threads already has 100m users so we wait to see how this will develop.

If you need advice, contact me f.jennings@teacherstern.com or +44 (0) 20 7611 2338.