The Irish regulatory authority announced on Thursday morning a fine of 310 million euros (approximately 335 million dollars) on the American professional networking platform LinkedIn, which is owned by the tech giant Microsoft. The Irish authorities indicated that this fine is due to LinkedIn's violations of the European Union's data privacy rules.

The Irish Data Protection Commission warned LinkedIn about the concerns of the Irish authorities regarding legal violations and a lack of integrity and transparency in the processing of personal data of the platform's users, with the aim of benefiting from it to increase LinkedIn's advertising revenues.

In the press release issued today, the Irish regulatory authority clarified that it had conducted an investigation and found that LinkedIn does not have a legal basis for collecting data in order to target users with online ads, which constitutes a clear violation of the privacy rules known as the General Data Protection Regulation or GDPR. The commission issued an order to LinkedIn to comply with the rules and pay the prescribed fine.

In a statement issued by the company, LinkedIn stated that it had been operating in accordance with what it viewed as compliance with data privacy rules, but emphasized that it would review its practices to ensure that its advertising policies meet regulatory requirements.

It is worth noting that the Data Protection Commission, based in Dublin, is the main regulatory authority for LinkedIn's privacy in the European Union, as this is where LinkedIn's European headquarters is located.