For the noyb association, author of the complaint, LinkedIn must allow its users to know for free the identity of the members of the network who consult their profile.
Noyb, a European association for the defense of citizens’ privacy, announced this Tuesday, May 5, to file a complaint against LinkedIn with the Austrian Data Protection Authority. In question, the fact that LinkedIn does not allow its users to know for free the identity of the network members who consult their profile while making this same data available to subscribers of its Premium program.
“LinkedIn tracks visits to profiles. However, to know who has viewed your profile, you have to pay, by subscribing to its Premium subscription,” explains noyb in a press release. “The legality of this visitor tracking is unclear. However, it is clear that if this data is displayed as part of a Premium subscription, it should also be accessible following an access request under Article 15 of the GDPR.”
Article 15 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) establishes that the person concerned by the processing of their personal data has the right to obtain access to it. According to noyb, who represents a user of the network in his complaint, LinkedIn refuses this access by invoking the protection of the data of the latter’s visitors under the GDPR. “LinkedIn has no qualms about giving up certain data for remuneration, but suddenly becomes concerned about respecting the privacy of other users when you exercise your right of access,” comments Martin Baumann, lawyer specializing in data protection at noyb. “Protecting the rights and freedoms of others may well justify the non-disclosure of shared personal data. However, if a company has obtained the required consent and is clearly willing to make this same data accessible for a fee, this argument no longer holds,” explains Martin Baumann.
Joint personal data
At the heart of this matter, noyb considers that information relating to profile visits constitutes personal data for both the person consulted and the visitor. “This data particularly concerns the person consulted, because it concerns information on visits to their profile and because the platform attributes this information to them. This information could also make it possible to deduce information concerning the person consulted, in addition to the visitor,” explains to Journal du Net a spokesperson for the association. Following this reasoning, since information relating to profile visits is also linked to the viewed person, it is covered by their right of access under the GDPR.
The association also challenges the legality of how LinkedIn records profile visits. For her, although users can deactivate this tracking, no request for explicit consent (opt-in) is made to them.
In its complaint, noyb demands that the user represents “a complete response” to his request for access to this data and proposes the imposition of a fine “in order to prevent such violations in the future.”
