Facebook has agreed to stop targeting adverts at an individual user using personal data after she filed a lawsuit against its parent company, tech giant Meta.

Tanya O'Carroll, 37, who lives in London and works in the tech policy and human rights sector, said it would open a "gateway" for other people wanting to stop the social media company from serving them adverts based on their demographics and interests.

The Information Commissioner's Office, the UK's data watchdog, said online targeted advertising should be considered direct marketing.

In a statement, Meta said it provided "robust settings and tools for users to control their data and advertising preferences".

Ms O'Carroll, who created her Facebook account about 20 years ago, filed a lawsuit against Meta in 2022, asking it to stop using her personal data to fill her social media feeds with targeted adverts based on topics it thought she was interested in.

"I knew that this kind of predatory, invasive advertising is actually something that we all have a legal right to object to," Ms O'Carroll told Radio 4's Today Programme.

"I don't think we should have to accept these unfair terms where we consent to all that invasive data tracking and surveillance."

It was when she found out she was pregnant in 2017 that she realised the extent to which Facebook was targeting adverts at her.

She said the adverts she got "suddenly started changing within weeks to lots of baby photos and other things - ads about babies and pregnancy and motherhood".

"I just found it unnerving - this was before I'd even told people in my private life, and yet Facebook had already determined that I was pregnant," she continued.