A data protection group filed a complaint against LinkedIn, accusing it of charging users to see profile visitors.
VIENNA: A data protection group on Tuesday filed a complaint in Austria against professional networking platform LinkedIn, accusing it of charging users to see who has viewed their profiles.
Vienna-based Noyb — which stands for “None of Your Business” — said it filed a complaint with the Austrian Data Protection Authority on behalf of a LinkedIn user demanding access to data on his account.
It said the company asks users to sign up for its paid premium membership if they want to see all the users who have visited their profile pages.
But Noyb data protection lawyer Martin Baumann said in a statement: “People have the right to receive their own data free of charge.”
Noyb also said it was “unclear” whether the tracking of visitors to users’ profile pages was legal, as the company does not ask for active consent.
According to Noyb, the Microsoft-owned platform cited data protection concerns for not complying with certain data requests from users.
Noyb said it was demanding LinkedIn be fined.
A LinkedIn spokesperson said Noyb’s accusation was “false”.
They said the platform complied with the EU’s regulation on right of access and it was “incorrect that only premium members can see who has viewed their profile”.
Noyb has launched hundreds of legal cases that often prompt action from regulatory authorities against tech giants.
The group began working in 2018 with the advent of the European Union’s landmark General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which aims to make it easier for people to control how companies use their personal information.
