Google is one of the first tech giants to be hit with a violation of the E.U.’s new privacy regulations which took affect early last year and has been fined close to $57 million by French regulators.
Ahmed Khanji, Gridware CEO commented that “whilst tech giants Google, Facebook, Twitter and Amazon all received stern warnings from the E.U. regulators late last year about their violations of GPDR requirements, this is the first time the E.U. Data Proptection Authority has utilised GDPR to issue a final infringement.”
Maximum fines for violations of GDPR amount to $20m EUR or 4% of global revenue which amounts to potential fines in the billions of dollars.
France’s privacy agency CNIL said that Google had failed to fully disclose to users how their personal information was being collection and what happened to it. Google also did not properly obtain users permission to collect data about them to display personalised ads.
In force since 2018, the new privacy rules have set a global shift empowering individuals against corporations that use or collect user data without sufficient disclosure or permission.
Whilst Google’s recent changes to user data collection were a step in the right direction, it clearly wasn’t enough to comply with the strict requirements of GDPR, as the French regulator CNIL said “Google has failed to appropriately notify a high volume of E.U. users about how their data was being collected and for what purposes, which is in clear violation of privacy regulations.”
Google has released a public statement saying it is “reviewing the decision to take appropriate action and determine next steps.” Adding, “We’re deeply committed to meeting the requirements of GDPR.”
Whilst tech giants Google, Facebook, Twitter and Amazon all received stern warnings from the E.U. regulators late last year about their violations of GPDR requirements, this is the first time the E.U. Data Proptection Authority has utilised GDPR to issue a final infringement.
“It is likely we’ll see more fines issued by the E.U. Data Protection Authority to global brands this year,” Ahmed said. “not just for entities in the EU, but for corporations around the world including Australia that handle data of E.U. citizens.”
