Google’s €403m fine revives clash over location-data control

Google’s €403m fine revives clash over location-data control
Ireland’s Data Protection Commission has fined Alphabet, Google’s parent company, €403 million over its handling of users’ geolocation data, finding that the company breached EU data-protection rules between May 2018 and February 2020. The regulator has also ordered Google to bring its processing into line with the General Data Protection Regulation within six months.

The dispute centres on three Google features: Web & App Activity, Location History and Location Accuracy. The DPC concluded that Google had not adequately demonstrated transparency and accountability in relation to those tools, and identified concerns over how long some location data was retained.

The regulator’s position is that location information requires particular care because it can reveal highly personal details. Deputy commissioner Graham Doyle said such data can make online services more useful, but can also disclose “a significant amount of information about a person, including information that is inherently private.” The DPC said users may not have understood that their location could be used to influence advertising or infer interests, potentially reducing their control over personal data.

Google does not appear to contest that the investigation examined earlier arrangements, but frames the ruling as retrospective. The company said the case “revolves around old policies that have since been updated” and that, since 2019, it has substantially changed its practices and introduced tools intended to simplify location-data management.

Those changes, according to reporting on the decision, include automatic deletion options, storing Timeline data directly on a device, and added controls over the use of location information in advertising. The contrasting accounts therefore focus less on the sensitivity of location data than on whether Google’s past disclosures and safeguards met the GDPR standard — and whether subsequent reforms sufficiently address the regulator’s findings.

https://brazil-test-hub.syndichain.com Brazil News Hub brazil-test-hub brazil-test-hub