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Noyb files complaint against Pinterest over default tracking


The Austrian privacy organization Noyb has filed a complaint with the French data protection authority (DPA) against Pinterest for tracking people without their consent.

Pinterest is a social media platform that uses visual mood boards to inspire people to be creative. More than 130 million people in the European Union currently use Pinterest to search for tips on all kinds of topics.

As with most social media platforms, Pinterest is partly funded by selling personalized ads. To offer targeted ads, the company tracks users.

However, instead of asking for permission, as is required by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the company claims to have a ‘legitimate interest’ in processing people’s personal data. That’s why tracking is enabled by default. But only a few users actually know about this.

One user found out by accident when she checked the ‘privacy and data’ settings and noticed that ‘ads personalization’ was turned on by default. This option not only allows Pinterest to track on-site activity from users, but also obtain information from websites they visit to offer personalized ads. That’s when she contacted Noyb.

In return, Noyb -an acronym for ‘none of your business’- has filed a complaint with Commission Nationale de l'Informatique et des Libertés (CNIL), the French data protection authority.

“Pinterest is secretly tracking European users without asking for their consent. This allows the social media platform to unlawfully profit from people’s personal data without them ever finding out,” Kleanthi Sardeli, data protection lawyer at Noyb, says in a statement.

Sardeli argues Pinterest is actively ignoring a ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in order to maximize its profit. The Court recently ruled that an online advertisement company can only use personal information of its users that is strictly necessary to offer personalized ads.

According to Sardeli, the CJEU made it clear that personalized advertising cannot be based on legitimate interest. She says Pinterest is violating Article 6(1) of the GDPR by not asking for consent to track users and collect their personal data.

Furthermore, Pinterest is in violation of Article 15(1) for denying a data subject’s right of access. The complainant filed several access requests to see what information Pinterest had collected of her. Pinterest however failed to provide details about the categories of data that were shared with third parties.

Noyb is asking the French DPA to order Pinterest to erase the data that’s been processed for personalized ads and that the recipients be informed of the data removal. In addition, Noyb wants Pinterest to honor the complainant’s access request and to impose a fine to prevent similar violations in the future.


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