Xandr Fined a Record €8.6 Million for Relaying Grindr Data Revealing Sexual Orientation
Summary: Norway's data protection authority fined Xandr, Microsoft's advertising unit, €8.6 million ($9.62 million) for relaying Grindr users' personal data, including data revealing sexual orientation, to potentially thousands of advertisers between July 2018 and April 2020. The watchdog found Xandr was a joint controller with Grindr and responsible for obtaining consent, but Xandr instead pointed to Grindr and assumed the app had collected it.
Key Takeaway: The fine was calculated against Xandr's turnover in a period predating Microsoft's acquisition, and the DPA found the data moved through real-time bidding to potentially thousands of actors, completely hidden from the user - a reminder that ad-tech intermediaries can carry sensitive data far beyond where consent was ever collected.
Read the original at The Hacker News ↗
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