LinkedIn processes your personal data under multiple legal bases including 'legitimate interests' — a broad legal ground that does not require your active consent and can cover a wide range of data uses.
By relying on 'legitimate interests' as a lawful basis for multiple processing activities including advertising, LinkedIn avoids the stricter consent requirements that would apply under GDPR Art. 6(1)(a), limiting your ability to prevent certain data uses by simply withholding consent.
Cross-platform context
See how other platforms handle Legal Basis for Processing (Legitimate Interests) and similar clauses.
Compare across platforms →Legitimate interests is the most flexible and least protective legal basis under GDPR, meaning LinkedIn can process significant amounts of your data — including for advertising and AI training — without requiring your explicit consent, as long as it can argue its interests outweigh yours.
REGULATORY FRAMEWORK: GDPR Art. 6(1)(f) (legitimate interests) requires a three-part test: the interest must be legitimate, processing must be necessary, and the interest must not be overridden by the data subject's rights and freedoms. The Irish DPC's October 2024 €310M fine against LinkedIn was specifically because LinkedIn relied on legitimate interests for behavioral advertising processing and the DPC found this lawful basis was inapplicable. EDPB Guidelines 06/2014 on legitimate interests and the CJEU's Breyer case (C-582/14) provide the interpretive framework.
Compliance intelligence locked
Regulatory citations, enforcement risk, and due diligence action items.
Watcher: regulatory citations. Professional: full compliance memo.