A press release from the Irish DPC:
The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) has today announced its final decision following an inquiry into LinkedIn Ireland Unlimited Company (LinkedIn). This inquiry was launched by the DPC, in its role as the lead supervisory authority for LinkedIn, following a complaint initially made to the French Data Protection Authority.
The inquiry examined LinkedIn’s processing of personal data for the purposes of behavioural analysis[1] and targeted advertising[2] of users who have created LinkedIn profiles (members). The decision, which was made by the Commissioners for Data Protection, Dr Des Hogan and Dale Sunderland, and notified to LinkedIn on 22 October 2024, concerns the lawfulness, fairness and transparency of this processing. The decision includes a reprimand, an order for LinkedIn to bring its processing into compliance, and administrative fines totalling €310 million.
The DPC submitted a draft decision to the GDPR cooperation mechanism in July 2024, as required under Article 60 of the GDPR[3]. No objections to the DPC’s draft decision were raised. The DPC is grateful for the cooperation and assistance of its peer EU/EEA supervisory authorities in this case.
The DPC’s final decision records the following findings of infringement of the GDPR:
- Article 6 GDPR and Article 5(1)(a) GDPR, insofar as it requires the processing of personal data to be lawful, as LinkedIn:
- Did not validly rely on Article 6(1)(a) GDPR (consent) to process third party data of its members for the purpose of behavioural analysis and targeted advertising on the basis that the consent obtained by LinkedIn was not freely given, sufficiently informed or specific, or unambiguous.
- Did not validly rely on Article 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interests) for its processing of first party personal data of its members for behavioural analysis and targeted advertising, or third party data for analytics, as LinkedIn’s interests were overridden by the interests and fundamental rights and freedoms of data subjects.
- Did not validly rely on Article 6(1)(b) GDPR (contractual necessity) to process first party data of its members for the purpose of behavioural analysis and targeted advertising.
- Articles 13(1)(c) and 14(1)(c) GDPR, in respect of the information LinkedIn provided to data subjects regarding its reliance on Article 6(1)(a), Article 6(1)(b) and Article 6(1)(f) GDPR as lawful bases.
- Article 5(1)(a) GDPR, the principle of fairness.
DPC Deputy Commissioner Graham Doyle commented:
“The 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 subjects’ fundamental right to data protection.”
The DPC will publish the full decision and further related information in due course.