Digital Rights Ltd v Social Media Corp

JUDGMENT

Mr Justice Henshaw

1. This claim raises important questions about the protection of personal data in the digital age, and specifically about the use of personal data by social media companies for the purposes of targeted advertising.

2. The claimant, Digital Rights Ltd, brings this claim as a representative action on behalf of approximately 5 million UK users of the defendant's social media platform.

The Facts

3. The defendant operates a social media platform with approximately 30 million users in the United Kingdom. The platform is free to use, with the defendant's revenue derived primarily from targeted advertising.

4. The evidence shows that the defendant collected and processed a wide range of personal data about its users, including browsing history, location data, purchasing habits, and personal interests. This data was used to create detailed profiles of individual users, which were then sold to advertisers.

5. The defendant's privacy policy purported to obtain users' consent for this data processing. However, the claimant contends that the consent was not freely given, specific, informed, or unambiguous as required by Article 4(11) of the UK GDPR.

Legal Framework

6. Article 6(1)(a) of the UK GDPR provides that processing is lawful only if the data subject has given consent. Article 7 sets out conditions for consent, requiring that it be freely given and that the data subject be able to withdraw consent at any time.

7. The Data Protection Act 2018 supplements the UK GDPR and provides for compensation for material and non-material damage resulting from unlawful processing.

Decision

8. I find that the defendant's processing of personal data for targeted advertising did not comply with the UK GDPR. The consent obtained was not freely given: users were presented with a binary choice of accepting all data processing or being unable to use the platform. This does not meet the standard required by Article 7.

9. Judgment is entered for the claimant. Damages are assessed at £100 per affected user, totalling £500 million.