Irish privacy regulator fines Google €403 million over location data processing

By Padraic Halpin

DUBLIN, Sept ‌21 (Reuters) - The lead ​EU ​data privacy regulator for most of the biggest internet companies fined Alphabet's Google search engine €403 million ($463 million) after an inquiry into ‌its processing of location data, Ireland's Data Protection Commission said ⁠on Monday.

The Irish watchdog found that Google infringed European Union privacy rules known as the ‌General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) through ‌three of its specific features – 'Web & App Activity', 'Location History' and 'Location Accuracy' — from 2018 to 2020.

It was the fourth largest fine of the more than €4 ​billion in total levied by the DPC since it became the lead EU regulator for most big US tech firms under the strict ⁠2018 GDPR due to the location of companies' EU operations in Ireland.

Google was also ordered by the ​DPC to bring its processing into compliance within six months. The company did not immediately respond to a Reuters request ​for comment.

"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, and could lose control over their personal data," DPC Deputy Commissioner Graham Doyle said in a statement.

"The retention of users' location data for ⁠longer than necessary aggravated this loss of control."

The DPC opened the inquiry in 2020 following ​complaints from several European consumer rights organisations, including the pan-European consumers' organisation BEUC, regarding Google's processing of location data.

The infringements included the lawfulness and fairness of Google's processing ‌of location data in 'Web & App Activity', an account setting that processes information related to users’ activity on Google services, ‌and 'Location History', which keeps track of users' location through mobile devices.

Google is subject ⁠to three other ongoing statutory ‌inquiries, all of which ​are at an advanced stage, the DPC added.

($1 = 0.8712 euros)

(Reporting by Padraic Halpin; Editing by Paul Sandle, Emelia Sithole-Matarise and ‌Jan Harvey)

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