YouTube has been ordered by Austria’s data protection authority (DSB) to honor a user’s right of access under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), marking a significant win for privacy rights group noyb. The decision, issued on August 29, 2025, comes more than five years after noyb filed a complaint against the Google-owned platform for failing to fully comply with an access request.
The case dates back to January 2019, when noyb lodged eight complaints against major streaming platforms, including YouTube, Netflix, Spotify, and Amazon. Each company was accused of failing to provide users with the complete data required under Article 15 GDPR, which obliges companies to supply not only personal data but also details about its use, recipients, and retention periods.
According to noyb, YouTube withheld key information about processing purposes, storage periods, data recipients, and tracking cookies. The DSB ruled that Google’s approach—referring the complainant to online tools and generic privacy policies—did not satisfy GDPR requirements. The authority has now ordered YouTube to provide full access within four weeks, though Google can still appeal.
Martin Baumann, a data protection lawyer at noyb, criticized the lengthy process: “It is absurd that a multi-billion-dollar tech company like Google engages in years of legal wrangling rather than grant a user access to his personal data. If it takes more than five years to receive access, it becomes impossible to exercise other data subject rights.”
The ruling reinforces that access requests must be answered fully and promptly, setting an important precedent for other platforms. Non-compliance, the DSB emphasized, could lead to regulatory fines and user damage claims. For now, the case underscores both the persistence of privacy advocates and the slow pace of enforcement in cross-border data protection disputes.
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