LinkedIn hit with 310M euro fine for data privacy violations from Irish watchdog


LONDON — European Union regulators slapped LinkedIn on Thursday with a 310 million euro ($335 million) fine for violations of the bloc’s stringent data privacy rules.

Ireland’s Data Protection Commission reprimanded the Microsoft-owned professional social networking site over concerns about the “lawfulness, fairness and transparency” of its personal data processing for advertising purposes.

The Dublin-based watchdog is LinkedIn’s lead privacy regulator in the 27-nation EU because that’s where the company’s European headquarters is based.

The watchdog said it carried out an investigation that found LinkedIn did not have a lawful basis to gather data so it could target users with online ads, which is a breach of the privacy rules known as General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR. It ordered LinkedIn to comply with the rules.

Processing personal data “without an appropriate legal basis is a clear and serious violation” of the right to data protection in the EU, Deputy Commissioner Graham Doyle said in a statement.

LinkedIn said it that while it believes it has been “in compliance” with the rules, it’s working to ensure its “ad practices” meet the requirements.



Source link

About The Author

Scroll to Top