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If you use any of the Seznam.cz services, you have a decision to make. From tomorrow, users will be able to choose between two variants. You can continue to use the products for free and have targeted advertising ensured by so-called cookies, or for less 80 crowns per month not to provide data about yourself and your online life to the company.
This is in response to the European Union’s requirement that internet users have a choice as to whether their data is collected and used for advertising targeting. It is precisely the possibility of offering advertisers targeted advertising with specific results that allows many online services not to require additional payments from users.
“Seznam’s services have long been free for our users. Their development, quality and continuous development is paid for by everyone who uses them by displaying advertising and their data, specifically targeted advertising,” explains Jiří Udatný, director of the Identity and user profile division of Seznam, explaining the operation of the Czech internet number one.
“The majority of Seznam’s revenue comes from advertising. And if we have a stable identity from the user linked to his consent to the processing of personal data, we can issue targeted advertising to him. However, we fully respect users who are not interested in this type of targeted advertising on our services and actively express their disapproval of data processing,” adds Udatný.
“However, in order to be able to continue what we do, we offer a variant of using our services without targeted advertising for a fee of 79 crowns per month.”
Seznam.cz explanatory video.Video: Seznam.cz
The first batch of users will decide from Tuesday, March 26, 120 thousand users will gradually get to choose. In time, however, everyone will have to choose an option. In particular, users who do not have a valid statement regarding the processing of personal data should prepare themselves.
This means those who have expired after a year and a month, or do not have it saved for another reason. There can be a number of them, using a browser that does not support third-party cookies, using incognito windows, using an ad blocker, and the like.
Ads will remain. Yet
So what does No Targeted Advertising mean? “As soon as a person pays for Seznam without targeted advertising, all data processing purposes will be turned off by default. This means that we will not process any data,” describes the Udatný principle. “On the other hand, he can decide at any time and turn on some purposes, for example the personalization of content, which increases the quality of the service we provide for him.”
Regardless of which option the user chooses, ads will continue to be displayed. “The user will continue to see the advertisement, but it will no longer be targeted, adapted to his profile, because he did not give us his consent,” says the Seznam representative. As an example, he gives that runners will not be shown offers for sports shoes before the season, but for example a washing machine.
If the data is provided, he will not have to pay anything and will be shown targeted advertising.
The possibility to use the services completely without commercial messages is still being planned by Seznam. “We will offer users an ad-free list as another – and also more expensive – alternative to providing consent,” Udatný plans. “However, we will also maintain the existing List without targeted advertising, which targets a different type of user. Those who primarily have a problem with providing their data, not with advertising as such.”
More options for users
According to Udatný, the option to choose from variants is more user-friendly and transparent than a single product without advertising. This would be more expensive and “naturally create a much stronger barrier for users who just don’t want to provide their data.”
The price tag just so happens to be the thing that Meta Platforms is currently dealing with. It has introduced fees of less than 10 euros per month within the European Union. For this price, it promised its users an ad-free environment and better privacy protection. However, she immediately came up with the fact that the price could be less than six euros.
It resorted to the discount after criticism from privacy activists and consumer organisations. For example, they warned that the company is forcing users to consent to tracking through economic pressure, which is in violation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which requires freely given consent.
Seznam.cz is the parent company of Seznam média, as, under which Seznam Zprávy falls.
