Facebook parent Meta Platforms will allow users to opt out of highly personalized online ads that violate people’s privacy.

To which you say: Wow, cool, it’s about time!

To which I respond: Yeah, no. This is only in Europe.

It’s the latest example of how American tech companies are bending over backward to comply with tough European privacy laws, which give internet users the right to safeguard their personal information and opt out of invasive practices.

We have no such laws here on a national basis.

The Wall Street Journal, citing “people familiar with the planning,” reported Thursday that Meta will allow Europeans to dodge marketing that relies on insights gleaned from the content you view online and the websites you visit.

Instead, people who opt out of such practices will see ads based on broader categories, such as age and location.

Obviously Meta, and its marketing partners, would prefer to keep data mining all users everywhere and targeting them with ads that closely reflect their interests.

But European privacy rules give consumers much more power than in the United States.

Across the pond, businesses have to ask your permission before sharing data, and you can demand that companies delete you from their databases.

In America, you have to opt out from data sharing — and that’s only if the company gives you the choice.

And you have no right whatsoever to be forgotten by a business.

the U.S. tech industry has been waging a ferocious lobbying war to prevent meaningful privacy laws from being enacted in this country.

They know it isn’t a level playing field when it comes to privacy. But as it stands, they’ve rigged things so the game favors them and not you.

The solution? If our lawmakers can’t muster the spine to stand up to Big Tech and implement top-flight privacy rules, then let’s simply emulate our European friends and adopt the same rules as them.

This would create consistent global markets and, in the long run, would be better for companies because they wouldn’t need to follow different rules in different places.

For the time being, Americans are forced to dance to Silicon Valley’s tune.

And we give up too much personal info doing so.