Privacy organization noyb is filing a complaint with the Dutch DPA against X. The social media platform would enable illegal microtargeting ads which the European Commission uses to seek support for its proposals on client-side scanning.
Pan-European privacy organization noyb fundamentally disagrees with the European Commission’s (EC) proposals to enable client-side scanning. That law would allow the EC and security authorities to monitor all citizens’ chat traffic. The EC states that in this way, it wants to check for the possible possession of child pornography.
The privacy organization has long objected to this proposal, which interferes greatly with the privacy of residents of EU member states. Recently, the pan-European privacy organization also filed a complaint on this topic with the overarching European Data Protection Supervisor. The complaint was also about ads aimed at increasing understanding and support for client-side scanning.
Double breach
In the latest complaint against X, noyb accuses the social media platform of collecting sensitive personal data such as political views and religious beliefs to use for targeted micro-advertising. According to the privacy organizations, X’s collection of this data would be at odds with the platform’s own advertising guidelines. These would state that political and religious beliefs would not be used for ads.
The complaint filed with the Dutch DPA further alleges that X is in violation of GDPR regulations and the Digital Services Act (DSA). Political views and religious beliefs get extra protection from the DSA, and this type of data may only be processed in certain cases. The privacy organization wants X to be fined, given the severity of the violation and the number of end users affected.
Also read: Experts denounce EU client-side scanning proposal: ‘Too many risks’
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