EU fines Google $462 million for data location breach

Google infringed the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) between May 2018 and February 2020, according to Ireland’s data protection watchdog which promptly sued the tech giant for $462 million, on Monday.

Following the February 2020 inquiry, Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) ruled that Google infringed the GDPR “in respect of the lawfulness and fairness of its processing of location data in web and app activity and location history”.

“As a result of Google’s failures… individuals could have been unaware that their location was being used to, for example, influence them with ads or to infer their interests”. The DPC’s Deputy Commissioner, Graham Doyle, said in a statement.

Alongside the fine, the DPC said it “ordered Google to bring its processing into compliance within six months” with Doyle adding that “the retention of users’ location data for longer than necessary aggravated this loss of control”.

Google replied in a statement, saying:

“From 2019 onwards, we’ve significantly evolved our practices and launched robust tools that make managing location data simple,”

Adding that the “case centers around historical policies that have since been updated”.