LinkedIn Ireland controversies

GDPR enforcement over behavioural analysis and targeted advertising

Following an inquiry initiated after a complaint to the French data-protection authority, the Irish Data Protection Commission found issues concerning the lawfulness, fairness, and transparency of LinkedIn’s processing of member data for behavioral analysis and targeted advertising. The final decision included a reprimand, an order to bring processing into compliance, and administrative fines totaling €310 million. The Irish Data Protection Commission found that LinkedIn had not established a valid legal basis for certain processing of member data for behavioural analysis and targeted advertising. It determined that consent relied upon for some third-party-data processing was not sufficiently freely given, informed, specific, or unambiguous. The decision imposed a reprimand, a compliance order, and administrative fines totalling €310 million. Following an inquiry initiated after a complaint to the French data-protection authority by La Quadrature Du Net, the Irish Data Protection Commission found that LinkedIn had not established a valid legal basis for certain processing of member data for behavioural analysis and targeted advertising. It determined that consent relied upon for some third-party-data processing was not sufficiently freely given, informed, specific, or unambiguous, and rejected reliance on legitimate interests for certain first-party processing activities. The final decision included a reprimand, an order to bring processing into compliance, and administrative fines totaling €310 million.