LinkedIn empowers professionals to connect, grow, and discover opportunities. Personalized advertising enables members to see content relevant to their professional goals while supporting LinkedIn’s services. LinkedIn processes different categories of our members’ data for different personalized advertising purposes and under different legal bases. Companies must have a legal basis to process personal data legally under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the two most common bases are consent and legitimate interests.This article explains how LinkedIn processes your data for personalized advertising on the legal basis of legitimate interest and the choices you have as a member.
What does "legitimate interests" mean under GDPR?
Under GDPR, LinkedIn relies on "legitimate interests" (Article 6(1)(f)) as the legal basis for processing certain types of data for personalized advertising. This means that LinkedIn must fulfil the following 3 part test:
- Legitimate Purpose: The processing must serve a clear and lawful purpose. For LinkedIn, this means fulfilling our company mission of creating economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce and includes providing relevant ads to members, supporting professional networking and, and enabling LinkedIn to provide free access to core services for members.
- Necessity: The processing must be necessary to achieve these purposes. Personalized ads ensure members see opportunities aligned with their professional interests and allow advertisers to reach the right audiences effectively. If LinkedIn were not able to process limited categories of members’ data for ads, they would not see ads and potential opportunities that are relevant to them.
- Balancing Test: LinkedIn must ensure that your rights, freedoms, and interests are not overridden by its interests. Transparency, security measures, and member opt-out controls in your settings are in place to protect you and provide you with control over your ad choices.
What data does LinkedIn process for personalized ads under legitimate interests?
LinkedIn processes limited data from your profile for personalised advertising. This includes:
- Your connections
- Companies you follow
- Education
- Job information
- Employer
- Skills
- Profile location
- Skills derived from your profile
LinkedIn does not process sensitive personal data (e.g., health) for this purpose.
Why is this processing beneficial?
For LinkedIn and Advertisers:
- Advertisers can reach audiences who are most likely to benefit from their offerings.
- LinkedIn generates revenue to maintain its professional network while offering free access to core services for members.
For LinkedIn members:
- Personalized ads provide members with tailored ad content, such as sponsored job ads or professional event ads.
- They help members discover opportunities aligned with their career goals and skillsets.
- They help to provide members with access to free core services offered by LinkedIn (by generating revenue so that LinkedIn can invest in its free services for members).
For the Broader Community:
- Facilitates professional growth, skill development, and economic mobility.
- Supports efficient labor markets by connecting professionals with opportunities.
Your choices and controls
LinkedIn provides you with clear and accessible controls over your data:
- Opt-Outs: If you prefer not to see personalized ads based on your profile data, you can adjust your settings in the Advertising Data section.
- Transparency Tools: LinkedIn provides explanations for why you see specific ads and maintains an ad library where you can review past ads. LinkedIn also publishes information about how it uses members’ data for ads in Help Center articles, such as this one: How LinkedIn uses personal data for ads (LinkedIn Marketing Solutions).
- Data Access and Management: You can download your data, update your profile, change your settings or delete your account at any time.
These controls ensure you remain in control of how your data is processed.
How LinkedIn protects your data
LinkedIn has implemented robust safeguards to secure your data:
- State-of-the-art encryption and access controls where necessary.
- Regular segmentation updates to ensure relevance.
- Strict policies prohibiting discriminatory or intrusive advertising practices.
A balancing act: Benefits and safeguards
LinkedIn carefully balances its legitimate interests with your rights and expectations. Below we provide more information for members on how we balance their fundamental rights and freedoms with the legitimate interests we pursue.
Weighing in favor of LinkedIn:
- The processing supports EU Charter Fundamental Rights (e.g., the right to engage in work and to conduct a business) and creates benefits for members—including showing members ad-content that is relevant to their professional interests.
- The processing creates benefits for LMS customers, and the public more widely, including important public interests of ensuring freedom of movement, freedom of information, and promoting economic opportunities for members and businesses.
- Members reasonably expect LinkedIn to carry out this processing.
Weighing against LinkedIn:
- Members may see unwanted advertising.
- Members may feel like they do not have control over their data.
- Members may feel they are disadvantaged because LinkedIn displays certain types of personalized ads and not others.
Outcome of the balancing exercise:
By using only the minimum amount of data necessary, providing granular controls, and being transparent about processing practices, LinkedIn has mitigated the likelihood of negative impacts to our members and ensures that personalized advertising serves both members and the broader professional community responsibly. The interests pursued by the processing thus are not outweighed by the rights, freedoms, and interests of members.
Learn more
For detailed information about how LinkedIn processes your data and protects your rights under GDPR, visit our Privacy Policy or Help Center.