Over three years ago, noyb filed complaints against several German political parties for unlawfully using political microtargeting during the 2021 federal election. Now, the Berlin Data Protection Authority has finally issued decisions concerning the Social Democrats (SPD), the Greens, the Left (Die LINKE), and the CDU. The conclusion: all of them unlawfully used microtargeting. The complaint against the AfD is still pending, because the party tried to fight the DPA’s investigative powers in court.
- Original research by ZDF Magazin Royale
- Original TV report (on YouTube)
- Original complaints by noyb
- Excerpts of the decisions by the Berlin DPA (DE)
Political microtargeting illegal. With its new decisions, the Berlin Data Protection Authority has reprimanded several major German political parties (CDU, SPD, Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, DIE LINKE) for using sensitive political interests to target internet users with personalised political advertising. Such “microtargeting” is only possible because online platforms create extensive user profiles with people’s interests, habits, interactions and other information. These details can be used to manipulate users in the electoral process. Therefore microtargeting poses a threat to democratic elections.
According to the Berlin authority, there was no legal basis (such as consent) for targeting users based on their personal political interests for advertising. The authority has found that the processing of personal data by the above-mentioned political parties was unlawful.
Felix Mikolasch, data protection lawyer at noyb: “We welcome the Berlin DPA’s decision. Microtargeting poses a threat to democracy, so these decisions provide a level playing field for political parties. It is unfortunate, however, that it took the Authority more than three years. After all, there was another federal election in the meantime.”
AfD challenged the Berlin DPA. The complaint against the AfD is currently still pending with the Berlin authority. While the AfD also engaged in political microtargeting, it (so far unsuccessfully) fought the Berlin DPA’s investigative powers in court. The Berlin administrative court concluded that the AfD is obliged to provide the authority with the requested information. Although the authority hasn’t concluded this case yet, its decision to deem political microtargeting illegal sends a strong message to all political actors in Germany and beyond.
Max Schrems, honorary chairman of noyb: “These cases may be more about future compliance than fines. While it is unfortunate that the Berlin authority did not directly issue a ban on microtargeting, we hope that it will take swift enforcement action if political parties continue to rely on such activities."
Background. In 2021, ZDF Magazin Royale had revealed that all parties represented in the German Bundestag were using political microtargeting on Facebook to show ads to select groups of people. The German late-night show then asked viewers to install a browser extension to log microtargeting data, which allowed noyb to analyse and identify specific GDPR violations for specific individuals.
