Digital rights group NOYB files 9 complaints against Twitter over alleged violations of EU's privacy rules

cross-posted from: feddit.org/post/1843814

Complaints were filed in Austria, Belgium, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Spain and Poland by NOYB (‘non of your business’), the rights group founded by Austrian Max Schrems. NYOB argues that Elon Musk’s Twitter, now X, violated the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the European Union.

“As if Meta’s failed attempt to illegally use people’s personal data for AI projects did not send a clear enough message, Twitter is the next US company to just suck up EU users’ data to train AI,” the organization says.

Twitter started irreversibly feeding European users’ data into its “Grok” AI technology in May 2024, without ever informing them or asking for their consent.

NOYB says that “Twitter’s blatant ignorance of the law” prompted a surprising response by the “notoriously pro-corporate” Data Protection Commissioner (DPC): The authority has taken court action against Twitter to stop the illegal processing and enforce an order to bring its systems into compliance with the GDPR. However, a court hearing last Thursday revealed that the DPC seems to have been mainly concerned with so-called “mitigation” measures and the fact that Twitter started processing while still being in a mandatory consultation process with the DPC under Article 36 GDPR. The DPC does not seem to go for the core violations, the Irish watchdog argues.

Max Schrems, Chairman of noyb: “The court documents are not public, but from the oral hearing we understand that the DPC was not questioning the legality of this processing itself. It seems the DPC was concerned with so-called ‘mitigation measures’ and a lack of cooperation by Twitter. The DPC seems to take action around the edges, but shies away from the core problem.”

(Edit typo.]