Stefan Mileschin

First head rolls under GDPR rules

French regulators have fined Google nearly $57 million for violating Europe’s strict new data-privacy rules.

The fine is the first significant penalty brought against a US technology giant since the regionwide regulations took effect last year and will probably not be the last.

France’s top data-privacy agency, CNIL, said Google failed to disclose to users how their personal information is collected and what happens to it. Google did not correctly obtain users’ consent to show them personalised ads.

As such, Google’s business practices ran afoul of Europe’s new General Data Protection Regulation. Implemented in 2018, the sweeping privacy rules, commonly referred to as GDPR, have set a global standard that has forced Google and its tech peers in Silicon Valley to rethink their data-collection practices or risk sky-high fines.

The United States does not have a federal consumer privacy law, because big tech pays a lot of money to lobby politicians to make sure it does not happen. That has started to change with some big tech companies welcoming a GDPR over the pond. Although we suspect that might change as they get rough handling by the Euro law. Its watchdog, the FTC has mostly been locked in its kennel on matters of privacy.

Despite Google’s recent changes to comply with the EU rules, the CNIL said in a statement that “the infringements observed deprive the users of essential guarantees regarding processing operations that can reveal important parts of their private life since they are based on a huge amount of data, a wide variety of services and almost unlimited possible combinations.”

https://fudzilla.com/news/47983-fran...der-57-million