An Irish regulator helping to police European Union data privacy said Thursday it had fined professional networking platform LinkedIn 310 million euros ($335 million) over breaching users’ personal data for targeted advertising.

LinkedIn received a €310 million fine from the Irish Data Protection Commission for violating European Union's law related to the processing of personal data for behavioral analysis and targeted advertising.

Ireland’s data-protection watchdog has fined LinkedIn, saying the Microsoft-owned platform’s personal-data handling breached EU legislation.

The watchdog said it carried out an investigation that found LinkedIn did not have a lawful basis to gather data so it could target users with online ads, which is a breach of the

Ireland’s data protection commission has fined LinkedIn Ireland €310 million ($335 million) for illegally processing the personal data of users within the European Union to deliver targeted advertising.

Bad news for LinkedIn in Europe where the Microsoft-owned social network has been reprimanded and fined €310 million for privacy violations related to its

Microsoft-owned LinkedIn faces a €310 million ($334 million) fine by the European Union for violating data processing laws. The GDPR violations fall under Article 5 and Article 6, which require personal data to be handled in a lawful manner that protects people's privacy.

The decision, made by the Commissioners for Data Protection, Dr Des Hogan and Dale Sunderland, concerns the lawfulness, fairness and transparency of this processing.