Noyb: “LinkedIn blocks GDPR rights behind paywall”

The Microsoft subsidiary Linkedin tracks and stores who accesses which user profiles. This is used for advertising purposes. For a fee of around 30 euros per month, every user can also view the list of visitors to their own profile. However, if Linkedin is supposed to provide the same information as part of a GDPR information, this is apparently not possible. An Austrian Linkedin user no longer wants to accept this contradiction.

He has lodged a complaint against Linkedin Ireland with the country’s data protection authority. The corporate department responsible for Linkedin’s European business should be obliged to provide comprehensive information and should also be punished. The data protection organization Noyb (None of your business) supports the complainant.

He states that he requested data information from Linkedin in accordance with Article 15 GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), but only received incomplete information. The list of users who accessed his profile was missing. Linkedin explained this shortcoming by saying that it only provides information about the applicant’s personal data, not the data of other members.

From Noyb’s point of view, however, this is a shortening of the right of access: Article 15 paragraph 1 litera c grants the right to be informed about “the recipients … to whom the personal data have been disclosed”. And profile visitors are recipients of data about the person presented in the profile.

Precedent Austrian Post

In fact, everyone has the right to know to whom their personal data has been passed on: If specific recipients are known, they must be named according to a ruling by the European Court of Justice from 2023 (ECJ C-154/21). At that time, Austrian Post did not want to reveal which advertisers it sold customer data to. However, the ECJ has recognized that those responsible for data processing are obliged to disclose the identity of the recipients to those affected upon request. Noyb also refers to this on Linkedin.

It is unclear whether Linkedin’s logging of profile visitors is even legally permissible, says Noyb. But since the data is available, Linkedin has to provide information.

By the way, every Linkedin user can prevent themselves from appearing in the lists of visitors to other profiles. The corresponding option can be found in the settings under “Visibility”.

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