Google Fined €403M by Ireland’s Data Protection Commission Over Location Data Practices

Ireland's Data Protection Commission has fined Google €403M over how it handled users' location data. The commission found breaches of lawfulness and fairness in the way Google processed location data through Web & App Activity, Location History, and Location Accuracy.

The findings cover May 2018 to February 2020. During this period, individuals may have been unaware that their location was being used for targeted ads or to infer their interests. Google has six months to bring the processing into line with EU regulations.

Google's lead supervisory authority in the EU opened the inquiry on its own initiative after European consumer groups complained. Those complaints were filed by seven countries, built on Norwegian Consumer Council research into how Google's interface design steered people into leaving tracking on.