Privacy group files complaint against French health website over data protection concerns

Privacy International (PI) has filed a complaint against the French health website Doctissimo with the French data protection authority (CNIL), following a report  which highlighted how numerous mental health websites engage in programmatic advertising, a type of advertising that relies on sharing personal data with hundreds, if not thousands, of companies to eventually serve targeted ads. The complaint argues that Doctissimo has no lawful basis for the processing of personal data, as the requirements for valid consent are not met. Doctissimo also fails to obtain explicit consent in the case of special category personal data, and does not comply with the Data Protection Principles enshrined in GDPR, namely, the principles of transparency, fairness, lawfulness, purpose limitation, data minimisation, and integrity and confidentiality.