Google fined £425 billion for violating EU data handling regulations
The US technology giant, Google, is facing a massive fine of 403 million Euro (approximately Rp8.2 trillion) for violating regulatory provisions regarding the handling of location data in the European Union.
In addition to the fine, the Silicon Valley-based company is required to ensure that its location data processing complies with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) within six months.
According to a report by Engadget on Monday (21/9) local time, this decision was reached following an investigation by the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC), which serves as the primary regulator for privacy rules in the region. The investigation into the handling of location data began in 2020 following complaints from consumer rights groups.
The DPC examined how Google handled location data between May 2018 and February 2020 concerning three specific features: Web & App Activity, which stores user activity across various Google services; Location History, an optional feature that displays a timeline of where users have been with their phones; and Location Accuracy, which determines the location of Android devices more precisely than using GPS alone.
According to the regulator, Google failed to demonstrate that it adhered to the GDPR principles of “legality, fairness, and transparency” regarding data processing within the Location Accuracy feature.
“This case centres on historical policies that have since been updated,” Google told the Associated Press in a statement. “From 2019 onwards, we have significantly developed our practices and launched advanced tools that make managing location data easy.”
This ruling is not the first time Google has faced issues in the EU. This summer, the company lost its final appeal regarding a $4.7 billion Android antitrust fine imposed by the bloc in 2018. Furthermore, the European Commission fined Google $1 billion in July after deciding that the company unfairly prioritised its own services in search results.
This month, the company agreed to implement several changes to its Search engine to mitigate fines. The DPC stated that there are “three other large-scale investigations ongoing regarding Google, all of which are at an advanced stage.”
The regulator noted that this is the fourth-largest fine issued since the implementation of the GDPR. The largest among them was a $1.3 billion fine imposed on Meta for transferring the Facebook data of EU citizens to servers in the US.