The European Union’s top court has sided with a privacy challenge to Meta’s data retention policies. It ruled on Friday that social networks, such as Facebook, cannot keep using people’s information for ad targeting indefinitely. The judgement could have major implications on the way Meta and other ad-funded social networks operate in the region. Limits on how long personal data can be kept must be applied in order to comply with data minimization principles contained in the bloc’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Breaches of the regime can lead to fines of up to 4% of global annual turnover — which, in Meta’s case, could put it on the hook for billions more in penalties (NB: it is already at the top of the leaderboard of Big Tech GDPR breachers). The CJEU ruling follows an earlier opinion on the case, published by a court adviser back in April, which also backed limits on the retention of personal data for ad targeting. Contacted for a response, Meta spokesman Matt Pollard said the company is waiting to …