Ireland’s Data Watchdog Fines Google €403 Million Over Location Data
The Data Protection Commission has fined Google €403 million (approximately $463 million) regarding the handling of users' location data, following complaints from several European consumer groups.
Background
The commission investigated breaches of lawfulness and fairness in Web & App Activity and Location History data processing, transparency issues, and Google's accountability obligations. The findings span from May 2018 to February 2020, and Google has six months to bring its practices into compliance.
"As a result of Google’s failures... individuals could have been unaware that their location was being used... for example, to influence them with ads," stated Graham Doyle, the commission's deputy commissioner.
The Complaints and Inquiry
The inquiry began in February 2020, initiated by the commission as Google's lead supervisory authority in the EU, following complaints from consumer groups in seven countries, including BEUC. These complaints built upon research by the Norwegian Consumer Council on Google’s interface design encouraging users to enable tracking.
A Google spokesperson acknowledged the case concerns "historical policies... updated since," referencing auto-delete controls introduced from 2019.
This fine is one of the largest penalties issued by the regulator since GDPR took effect, following a €1.2 billion penalty on Meta in 2023 for sending European data to the US.
By Ana-Maria Stanciuc, Editor-in-Chief at TNW