LinkedIn processed 18 million non-user email addresses to target Facebook advertisings
The business and employment-oriented service LinkedIn processed the email addresses of 18 million non-members and targeted them with advertising on Facebook without permission.
A non-LinkedIn user issued a complaint to the Data Protection Commission that their email address had been obtained and used by the organisation for the purposes of targeted advertising on Facebook. Within Ireland’s Data Protection Commission the concerns grew regarding LinkedIn’s processing of personal data of non-users. Therefore, the office conducted an audit of the multinational LinkedIn Ireland, home to the company’s EU headquarters, and stated that it used million of e-mail addresses of non-users.
Also involved is LinkedIn Corp in the US, which processes data on behalf of LinkedIn Ireland. They targeted – by means of 18 million addresses – the individuals in Facebook. According to the commissioner’s annual report LinkedIn in the US carried out the processing in the absence of instructions from LinkedIn in Ireland (the controller). Said annual report covers the period from January 1st to May 24th 2018. Then the old office of the Data Protection Commissioner ceased to exist due to the General Data Protection Regulation. The new Data Protection Commission came into existence on May 25th 2018.