LinkedIn used 18 million emails of non-users for Facebook ad targeting

LinkedIn reportedly used millions of email addresses of non-LinkedIn users to target ads on Facebook, a new report has revealed. According to Ireland's Data Protection Commission report, in the first six months of 2018, LinkedIn processed hashed email addresses of approximately 18 million email addresses of non-users to target them with ads on Facebook, The Verge reported.

A number of companies have moved their data processing operations to Ireland, requiring them to abide by the regulations. LinkedIn has since ceased those practices, however, it raises concerns about user privacy.

“We appreciate the DPC’s 2017 investigation of a complaint about an advertising campaign and fully cooperated. Unfortunately, the strong processes and procedures we have in place were not followed and for that we are sorry. We’ve taken appropriate action, and have improved the way we work to ensure that this will not happen again. During the audit, we also identified one further area where we could improve data privacy for non-members and we have voluntarily changed our practices as a result,” Denis Kelleher, Head of Privacy, EMEA, for LinkedIn said.