Google has been fined €403 million in the European Union over the way it previously processed users’ location data. The penalty was announced by Ireland’s Data Protection Commission, which concluded that the tech giant’s practices between 2018 and 2020 violated GDPR regulations.
The investigation focused primarily on services related to location history and user activity. Google said the case concerns outdated settings that have since been significantly changed.
Investigation began in 2020
The Irish Data Protection Commission launched its investigation in February 2020.
The probe examined Google’s processing of location data within the European Union, particularly from May 2018 to February 2020.
Regulators looked into three specific features: Web & App Activity, Location History, and Location Accuracy.
According to the decision, users were on some occasions not sufficiently or clearly informed about how their location data was being processed.
Location data could affect advertising
Location data belongs to a category of information from which many details about a person’s daily life can be derived.
For example, it can reveal where a user regularly goes, which places they visit, or what services they access.
The regulator noted that people might not have been fully aware that their location could also be used for profiling and personalizing advertisements.
Transparency and the ability for users to make real decisions about the processing of their own data were central issues in the investigation.
Google given six months to comply
The fine does not mark the end of the case.
The Irish regulator has ordered Google to bring its practices fully in line with European data protection rules.
The company has been given six months to implement the necessary measures.
Google responded by saying the decision relates to older policies and settings it has since overhauled.
The company pointed to simpler privacy controls, automatic data deletion, and limits on the precision of certain location information as examples of these changes.
EU regulators tighten scrutiny on tech companies
The case against Google is the latest in a series of major interventions by European regulators targeting global tech companies.
Ireland plays a key role in such matters because many European headquarters of American technology firms are located there.
Just recently, Uber received a record €825 million fine in Europe, also over issues related to user personal data.
Fine among largest by Irish regulator
The €403-million penalty is one of the highest imposed by Ireland’s Data Protection Commission.
Since GDPR enforcement began in 2018, the regulator has fined major tech companies a cumulative total of over €4 billion.
European regulations allow for fines of up to four percent of a company’s global annual turnover for the most serious GDPR breaches.
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The decision also shows that European regulators are increasingly focusing not just on the mere collection of personal data, but also on whether users genuinely understand what happens to their data.
It will now be crucial for Google to meet the regulator’s requirements within the given timeframe. The company said it has already modified several disputed mechanisms, but the fine concerns the company’s data processing from 2018 to 2020.
This article was translated from the original Slovak version with the assistance of AI.
