Irish regulator fined Google 403 million euros

The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) imposed an administrative fine of 403 million euros on Google. The reason for the sanctions was the violation of the GDPR regulations revealed during the investigation of the methods of processing users' geodata.

The regulator found that the corporation was violating the transparency rules when collecting information within the services "Location History", "App and Web Activity", as well as the "Location Accuracy" feature. During the check, it was found that the company did not provide users with comprehensive information on how their data was used and allowed their excessive storage.

The investigation covered the period during which the data collection algorithms worked without proper control by the personal data subjects. The commission emphasized that the consent mechanisms implemented in Google's interfaces did not meet the strict requirements of European legislation on the protection of privacy. The amount of the fine was one of the largest imposed by the DPC for similar violations.

This decision is part of a large-scale campaign by European regulators to limit the data collection practices of large technology companies. In the near future, Google is obliged to revise its geolocation storage policies and implement more transparent access management tools for users in the EU to avoid further claims from supervisory authorities.