Pinterest faces EU privacy complaint over tracking ads

Core Viewpoint - Pinterest is facing a complaint from the European privacy rights non-profit noyb for allegedly breaching the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) by not obtaining user consent for tracking and profiling for advertising purposes [1][2]. Group 1: GDPR Compliance Issues - The GDPR allows for penalties of up to 4% of global annual turnover for confirmed breaches, which could lead to significant sanctions for Pinterest [1]. - The complaint includes accusations that Pinterest failed to fulfill a GDPR data access request, not providing information on the categories of data shared with third parties [2][5]. - Pinterest is relying on a legal basis known as legitimate interest (LI) for processing user data for ad targeting, which noyb argues is non-compliant with GDPR [3][4]. Group 2: User Tracking Practices - Pinterest tracks all of its approximately 130 million regional users by default to personalize ads, requiring users to actively object to this tracking rather than being asked for consent [3]. - A complainant discovered that "ads personalization" was turned on by default and that Pinterest uses information from visited websites and other third parties for ad display [5]. - The complaint asserts that Pinterest's tracking practices are unlawful since the introduction of GDPR in 2018 [5][6]. Group 3: Legal Proceedings and Potential Outcomes - The complaint has been filed with France's data protection authority, but it may be passed to Ireland's Data Protection Commission due to Pinterest's regional headquarters in Dublin [7]. - The complaint calls for Pinterest to delete any data processed for ads, fulfill the data access request, and be fined to deter future GDPR breaches [6].