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LinkedIn fined $335 million in EU for tracking ads privacy breaches (techcrunch.com)

submitted 3 weeks ago by ForgottenFlux@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

22 comments fedilink hide all child comments

The administrative penalties, which are worth around $335 million at current exchange rates, have been issued by Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) under the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The regulator found a raft of breaches, including beaches to the lawfulness, fairness and transparency of its data processing in this area.

The GDPR requires that uses of people’s information have a proper legal basis. In this case, the justifications LinkedIn had relied upon to run its tracking ads business were found to be invalid. It also did not properly inform users about its uses of their information, per the DPC’s decision.

LinkedIn had sought to claim (variously) “consent”-, “legitimate interests”- and “contractual necessity”-based legal bases for processing people’s information — when obtained directly and/or from third parties — to track and profile its users for behavioral advertising. However, the DPC found none were valid. LinkedIn also failed to comply with the GDPR principles of transparency and fairness.

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[–] COASTER1921@lemmy.ml 60 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

LinkedIn has some of the most obfuscated and complex ad targeting settings I've encountered. There needs to be a retirement to have a one click solution to disable ad personalization.

[–] themoonisacheese@sh.itjust.works 33 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

The button already exists and it's the install button on ublock origins page.

[–] dubyakay@lemmy.ca 14 points 3 weeks ago

I think the problem goes deeper. Their page tracks everything you do and then sells that data to third parties. UBO only blocks ads and tracking.

The only way to prevent linkedin from selling data related to you is to not use their site at all.

[–] COASTER1921@lemmy.ml 7 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I thought that without blocking cookies the tracking is still active, even if you're not being served ads from them. In those same LinkedIn privacy settings you're automatically opted into having your data used to train AI models.

[–] franklin@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago

uBlock Origin now has an option to block cookies as well.

[–] HK65@sopuli.xyz 8 points 3 weeks ago

There is in fact a requirement, and also that it's off by default.