08:16 AM EDT, 10/04/2024 (MT Newswires) -- (Updates with Meta's response in the last two paragraphs.)

Meta Platforms' ( META ) Facebook was ordered by a European court Thursday to limit the use of users' sexuality data for advertising.

"An online social network such as Facebook cannot use all of the personal data obtained for the purposes of targeted advertising, without restriction as to time and without distinction as to type of data," the Court of Justice of the European Union said in a statement.

The case stemmed from a lawsuit filed by an Austrian activist who disclosed his sexual orientation at a public panel and found the data made its way into marketing aimed at him.

The court ruled that data collected by Meta outside its platforms, even if publicly available, "does not authorize the operator of an online social network platform" to use it for personalized advertising.

Meta said in an email to MT Newswires that it was studying the court's judgement. "Meta takes privacy very seriously and has invested over five billion Euros to embed privacy at the heart of all of our products," a spokesperson said. "Everyone using Facebook has access to a wide range of settings and tools that allow people to manage how we use their information."

The company said it does not use special categories of data provided by users to personalize ads and prohibits advertisers from sharing sensitive information.

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