All posts tagged: microtargeting

EU faces privacy complaint over CSAM microtargeting ads it ran on X

EU faces privacy complaint over CSAM microtargeting ads it ran on X

Published by skeptic

A microtargeted advertising controversy which has implicated European Union lawmakers in privacy-hostile practices banned by laws they had a hand in passing is the subject of a new complaint by privacy rights not-for-profit, noyb. The complaint against the EU Commission’s Directorate General for Migration and Home Affairs is being filed today, with the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS), which oversees EU institutions’ compliance with the bloc’s data protection laws. noyb is accusing the Commission of “unlawful micro-targeting” on X (Twitter) related to a Commission legislative proposal aimed at combating child sexual abuse. It says it’s also considering filing a complaint against X for providing tools that enabled EU staffers to target ads using categories related to political opinions and religious beliefs — information that’s known as “special category” data under the bloc’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). These sensitive categories of personal data require people’s explicit consent for processing and it’s not clear that individual permission was obtained from all users whose data was processed in this way (either by X; or by the Commission) …

EU commissioner sidesteps MEPs’ questions about CSAM proposal microtargeting

EU commissioner sidesteps MEPs’ questions about CSAM proposal microtargeting

Published by skeptic

The European Union’s home affairs commissioner, Ylva Johansson, has confirmed the Commission is investigating whether or not it broke recently updated digital governance rules when her department ran a microtargeted political ad campaign aiming to drive support for a controversial child sexual abuse material (CSAM)-scanning proposal she’s spearheading. But at a committee hearing in the European Parliament today she deflected MEPs’ enquiries for her to give more details about the ad campaign. The governance regulation concerned is the Digital Services Act (DSA), which includes provisions relating to online advertising — including a prohibition on the use of sensitive personal data, such as political opinions, for targeting ads. While the ads in question ran on X (formerly Twitter) — which is already expected to be compliant with the DSA, having been designated by the Commission as a so-called Very Large Online Platform (VLOP) back in April. The Commission itself, meanwhile, not only proposed this pan-EU law but is responsible for oversight of VLOPs’ DSA compliance. So — tl;dr — if EU officials have used X’s ad-targeting …

Facebook political microtargeting at center of GDPR complaints in Germany

Facebook political microtargeting at center of GDPR complaints in Germany

Published by skeptic

In its latest piece of strategic litigation, the precision-punching European privacy rights campaign group noyb has used data donated by users of the ‘Who Targets me‘ browser extension, which analyzes political microtargeting on Facebook, to build a case against every political party in Germany — for what it alleges is unlawful processing of voters’ personal data via Facebook’s adtech platform during the 2021 federal elections. Today it’s filed six complaints with Berlin’s data protection commission — one apiece for the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Alternative for Germany (AFD), SPD, Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, DIE LINKE and the Ecological Democratic Party, suggesting the law-breaking behavior cuts across the political spectrum. The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) classes information on political opinions as so-called ‘special category data’ — which has a higher bar for processing (either explicit consent; or it was expressively made public by the data subject themselves; or some vital / public health or other not-for-profit interest applies, none of which looks likely here, given this is Facebook political ads we’re talking about). noyb …