Amnesty International has officially backed a class action lawsuit filed today by The Privacy Collective against AppLovin, a California-based technology firm. The litigation, initiated in the Netherlands, alleges that the company has engaged in the systemic, unauthorized collection and commercialization of personal data from millions of Dutch mobile device users.
The legal action centers on software development kits (SDKs) embedded within widely used mobile applications. Plaintiffs allege that these tools function as sophisticated tracking mechanisms, harvesting granular user data without adequate disclosure or consent. According to the filing, the data is subsequently distributed to a vast network of third-party entities to build comprehensive behavioral profiles, which facilitate the sale of targeted advertising space. AppLovin, which reported 5.5 billion U.S. Dollars in revenue for 2025, maintains a significant presence in the mobile advertising ecosystem.
The Privacy Collective contends that the tracking software is engineered to circumvent user privacy preferences, including instances where individuals or parents have explicitly opted out of data harvesting. The list of applications cited in the complaint includes high-traffic titles such as Subway Surfers, Block Blast, Helix Jump, Vinted, and the CapCut video editor. The organization estimates that the scope of this data collection includes approximately 1.5 million minors residing in the Netherlands.
Dagmar Oudshoorn, Director of Amnesty International Netherlands, emphasized that the organization’s support stems from concerns regarding the digital rights of vulnerable populations. “Because children are now tracked at an increasingly young age, it makes them uniquely vulnerable to economic exploitation,” Oudshoorn stated. “This lawsuit has a clear goal, namely to protect and strengthen fundamental rights such as privacy, autonomy and human dignity. The digital advertising and tracking industry is violating these rights structurally and on a large scale.”
The legal challenge argues that the current business model employed by the defendant prioritizes profit extraction at the expense of established data protection standards. Under the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which is enforced in the Netherlands by the Dutch Data Protection Authority (Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens), companies are strictly required to obtain informed consent for data processing and to adhere to the principle of data minimization—standards the plaintiffs claim AppLovin has systematically failed to meet.
The Privacy Collective has opened a registration portal on its website, inviting Dutch users who have installed the implicated applications to join the class action as affected parties. The group intends to seek financial compensation for users whose data was allegedly processed in violation of privacy laws.
The case now moves to the Dutch court system, where the initial phase will focus on the admissibility of the class action and the scope of the discovery process regarding AppLovin’s data handling practices.
