Billion-dollar airline faces $450M fine over alleged GDPR violations
The European Center for Digital Rights (noyb) has filed a complaint against Ryanair for forcing its customers to set up accounts and submit “invasive biometrics” to book flights.
Photo by Ian Waldie/Getty Images.
The European Center for Digital Rights (noyb) has filed a complaint against Ryanair for forcing its customers to set up accounts and submit “invasive biometrics” to book flights.
Noyb has filed a General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) complaint against the popular low-cost Irish airline Ryanair.
According to the data protection group, new customers are essentially forced to set up an account to book a flight, which usually involves giving up their personal information.
Many airlines don’t require customers to set up an account to book a flight as a new customer. Noyb claims that forcing customers to set up accounts where they provide unnecessary personal information violates the GDPR.
When setting up an account with Ryanair, customers are required to go through a verification process that involves providing biometric information.
While there are two ways to submit this verification, noyb claims that “Ryanair nudges them towards a pre-selected and highly invasive biometric facial recognition process.”
If customers refuse to submit their biometric data, the airline requests a handwritten signature and a photograph of the person’s ID if they want to fly with Ryanair.
“This creates an additional burden for refusing consent to the use of their biometric data, leading to customers being robbed of their free choice – and Ryanair not complying with the consent requirements of the GDPR,” said noyb.
According to the non-profit, this is the second complaint filed against Ryanair. Noyb has filed the complaint with the Italian Garante and could fine the airline €431 million, roughly $447 million.
This isn’t the first time Ryanair has been under fire for its use and collection of biometrics.
The airline has a case under its name at the Irish Data Protection Commission offices. The privacy watchdog said it had received multiple complaints about the company requesting additional ID verification from customers who book flights via third-party vendors.