Google Fined $463 Million Over EU Location Data Rule Breach

Google has been fined 403 million euros ($463 million) by the European Union's data privacy watchdog for breaching EU location data rules. The fine was issued by Ireland's Data Protection Commission, which found that Google mishandled users' location data in their Web & App Activity and Location History settings.

The investigation, which opened six years ago, examined how Google applied the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) from 2018 to February 2020. Regulators said that location data is a type of personal data that can be used to infer someone's location.

Google has since updated its practices and launched tools to make managing location data simple, but regulators were concerned about the company's handling of location data in the past.