Security News > 2023 > March > German political parties accused of microtargeting voters on Facebook

Remember the Who Targets Me browser extension from privacy activists at Noyb? The group yesterday filed explosive complaints based on log records from the extension that claim six of Germany's political parties broke European data law when they targeted voters on Facebook's adtech platform.

The group is claiming the allegedly GDPR-busting activity took place during the country's 2021 federal elections, and filed six complaints yesterday with the Berlin and Bavarian data protection watchdogs against parties spanning the entire German political spectrum.

Political opinions are specifically protected under Article 9 of Europe's General Data Protection Regulation, says Noyb, which claims both the parties and the social network violated the GDPR by running the ads.

At the core of these complaints appears to be allegations the political parties were trying to nick voters from each other by targeting people known to be interested in another political party.

Die Linke said that it generally does not provide companies such as Facebook and Google with any personal data, use "Dark posts", or other questionable means such as Cambridge Analytica has reportedly used.

In a statement, translated from German, they added: "The tailoring of our campaigns is based on socio-demographic characteristics, in particular gender, language and age preferences, as well as occupation and interests. Ads can also target regions. For reasons of transparency and data protection, the SPD does not use tools such as Facebook Pixel or Facebook SDK.".

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/03/22/germany_complaints_noyb/