LinkedIn has been fined €310 million in Europe for a privacy breach related to targeted advertising.
LinkedIn has been fined €310 million for breaching privacy rules related to targeted advertising in Europe. The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) has announced that LinkedIn's data processing processes do not comply with the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
The DPC stressed that LinkedIn's legal grounds for processing users' data were insufficient. While the company tries to process data based on grounds such as obtaining consent from its users, legitimate interests and contractual requirements, the DPC said these grounds were inadequate. It also noted that LinkedIn did not provide enough information to users about how their data was being used.
"Processing personal data without an appropriate legal basis violates the fundamental rights of data subjects," DPC official Graham Doyle said, adding that the fine was the largest ever imposed on LinkedIn.
The complaint was first filed in 2018 by French digital rights organization La Quadrature Du Net. The company made a statement on this issue, noting that the amount of the fine is less than the amount that Microsoft previously informed its investors.
The fine is the largest fine LinkedIn has received for breaching data protection laws in Europe, and is indicative of increased scrutiny and penalties against tech giants under the GDPR.
