Tech giant Google has been fined €403m by the Data Protection Commission (DPC) over the processing of location data.
Ireland’s data protection authority said that its investigation into Google found failures in this regard meaning that people 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.
The investigation was launched by the DPC in February 2020, following receipt of complaints from several European consumer rights organisations regarding Google’s processing of location data in connection with certain services and products.
The decision, which was made by the Commissioners for Data Protection, Dr Des Hogan, Dale Sunderland and Niamh Sweeney, found that Google had infringed the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
The DPC has imposed fines totalling €403m and has ordered Google to bring its processing into compliance within six months.
In a statement, Google said the case centres around historical policies that have since been updated.
“From 2019 onwards, we’ve significantly evolved our practices and launched robust tools that make managing location data simple,” a spokesperson said.
The inquiry covered processing between 25 May 2018 and 4 February 2020 across Web & App Activity, Location History, and Location Accuracy products.