The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) has fined LinkedIn the sum of \u20ac310 million, for violating data protection law.<\/p>\n
This is following an inquiry into the platform\u2019s handling of personal data for behavioral analysis used for\u00a0targeted advertising.<\/p>\n
The DPC, acting as LinkedIn\u2019s lead supervisory authority under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), launched the investigation after receiving a complaint from the French Data Protection Authority.<\/p>\n
The decision, made by Data Protection Commissioners Dr. Des Hogan and Dale Sunderland and finalized on October 22, 2024, highlights serious breaches of GDPR concerning the lawfulness, fairness, and transparency of LinkedIn\u2019s data processing practices.<\/p>\n
In addition to the substantial fine, LinkedIn has been ordered to bring its data processing activities into compliance with GDPR standards.<\/p>\n
In a statement issued by DPC on Thursday, the regulator said its inquiry found that LinkedIn failed to obtain valid consent from users for the processing of their personal data for behavioral analysis and targeted advertising, thereby violating Article 6(1)(a) of the GDPR.<\/p>\n
It added that the consent obtained was neither freely given nor sufficiently informed or specific, violating the fundamental rights of users.<\/p>\n
In violation of Article 6(1)(f) of the GDPR which bothers on legitimate interests, the DPC said LinkedIn unlawfully processed members\u2019 data for advertising purposes, claiming it was for legitimate interests.<\/p>\n
However, LinkedIn\u2019s interests were overridden by the fundamental rights of its users, rendering the processing illegal.<\/p>\n
According to the regulator, LinkedIn improperly relied on the provision of Article 6(1)(b) of the GDPR on contractual necessity to justify the processing of members\u2019 data for behavioral analysis, which the DPC determined was not necessary for fulfilling user contracts.<\/p>\n
The DPC said it also found LinkedIn in violation of Articles 13(1)(c) and 14(1)(c) for not providing clear information to users about the legal bases it relied on for data processing.<\/p>\n
Graham Doyle, Deputy Commissioner of the DPC, emphasized the importance of lawful data processing in safeguarding user rights stating:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe lawfulness of processing is a fundamental aspect of data protection law, and the processing of personal data without an appropriate legal basis is a clear and serious violation of a data subject\u2019s fundamental right to data protection.\u201d<\/p>\n
As part of the ruling, LinkedIn has been instructed to reform its data processing practices to ensure compliance with GDPR requirements.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) has fined LinkedIn the sum of \u20ac310 million, for violating data protection law. This is following an inquiry into the platform\u2019s handling of personal data for behavioral analysis used for\u00a0targeted advertising. The DPC, acting as LinkedIn\u2019s lead supervisory authority under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), launched the investigation […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":53498,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[173,181,249],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-crime","category-world-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53497"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53497\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53499,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53497\/revisions\/53499"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}