Google Slapped with €403 Million Fine for Location Data Privacy Failures

The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) has fined Google €403 million ($459 million) for violating European privacy law.

The penalty follows a six-year inquiry into Google's management of user location data between May 2018 and February 2020. During this time, Google collected users' location data without making clear that it could be used to infer their interests and shape the ads they saw.

A report by the Associated Press in 2018 found that turning off Location History tracking did not stop Google from saving some of that location data, which was also being collected through Web & App Activity. This issue led to payouts in multiple US jurisdictions, including Arizona, 40 states, Washington State, and Texas.