BRUSSELS, April 25 (Reuters) - Austrian privacy activist

Max Schrems on Thursday received backing from an adviser to

Europe's top court in his fight against Meta Platforms ( META )

over personalised advertising based on processing of personal

data.

The adviser's opinion is non-binding, but judges at the

Luxembourg-based Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU),

follow the majority of such recommendations. It will rule on the

case in the coming months.

Schrems, who has repeatedly sued Meta for alleged breaches

of the EU's privacy law known as the General Data Protection

Regulation (GDPR), took his grievance to an Austrian court,

saying he regularly received advertisements directed at

homosexuals.

The court subsequently asked the CJEU for guidance.

CJEU advocate general Athanasios Rantos sided with Schrems.

"The Court should rule that the GDPR precludes the

processing of personal data for the purposes of targeted

advertising without restriction as to time," he said in his

opinion.

"A public statement by the user of a social network about

his or her sexual orientation renders those data 'manifestly

public', without, however, permitting their processing for the

purposes of personalised advertising."

Schrems lawyer Katharina Raabe-Stuppnig said political

comments on social media should not be allowed to be used for

targeted political advertising.

"At the moment, the online advertising industry simply

stores everything forever. The law is clear that the processing

must stop after a few days or weeks. For Meta, this would mean

that a large part of the information they have collected over

the last decade would become taboo for advertising," she said.

The case is C-446/21 Schrems (Communicating data to the

public).