Austrian Post has been ordered to pay €18 million ($20 million) for collecting and selling mailers' perceived political preferences.

The Austrian Data Protection Authority decided on the administrative penalty after finding that the postal service had violated privacy regulations, the Justice Ministry announced in a press release late Tuesday.

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In January, the investigative journalism platform Addendum reported that Austrian Post was selling the names, addresses, ages and genders of about 3 million customers to marketing companies.

Employees of Austrian Post even made educated guesses about the political affinities of 2.2 million people who sent mail and sold that information to parties in search of new members. Austrian Post's direct-mailings division generates annual revenues of about €200 million.

Following the report, representatives had announced that the postal service would delete its database of the likely leanings of about 2.2 million customers. At the time, Austrian Post had pledged to restructure its entire database "along new lines."

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Epicenter.works, which advocates for a responsible digitization of society, argued that this breaches EU data protection rules. The consumer group VKI also raised questions about the legality of the practice.

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'Along new lines'?

In their defense of the company, representatives argued that Austrian Post had based the assumptions on opinion surveys and voting statistics in specific geographical areas, comparing the practice to exit polls during elections. They said the data could not reveal the voting behavior of individuals.

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Privacy campaigners likened the scandal to the rampant violations of privacy by Facebook, the world's largest social network — especially after the wide-scale manipulation of user data during the 2016 US presidential campaign.

Austrian Post has said it plans to appeal the decision.

Curtain up! 10 reasons to visit Salzburg Salzburg Festival centenary: A city becomes a stage Every summer, Salzburg becomes a showcase for stars and celebrities — especially in 2020, as the Salzburg Festival is turning 100! Last year nearly 200 concerts, opera and theatre performances in just 43 days attract more than a quarter of a million visitors from more than 80 countries to Austria's fourth-largest city. The festival’s 2020 program will be made public on November 13, 2019.

Curtain up! 10 reasons to visit Salzburg Spectacle, drama and great opera The festival opens every year with "Jedermann" (pictured) on Cathedral Square. The production of this play in 1917 also marked the birth of the festival and has become its trademark since then. In addition to Cathedral Square, the Festspielhaus (Large Playhouse) and the Felsenreitschule (Riding School) are its best-known venues. In 2020, actor Tobias Moretti (left) gets a new female paramour.

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mkg/rc (Reuters, AFP, dpa)

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