European Union fines Google $462 million for violating data protection rules

The Irish Data Protection Commission announced on Monday that it has imposed a fine of 403 million euros ($462 million) on Google for violating rules concerning users’ location data, on behalf of the European Union.

The Irish authority, responsible for enforcing EU data protection regulations, stated that the tech giant breached the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) between May 2018 and February 2020.

In its final decision following an investigation launched in February 2020, the commission concluded that Google violated the EU regulation “with regard to the lawfulness and fairness of its processing of location data within its web and app activities and browsing history.”

Graham Doyle, deputy commissioner of the commission, said, “As a result of Google’s failures, individuals may not have been aware that their location data was being used, for example, to influence them through advertising or to infer their interests.”

In response, Google stated that “the case concerns previous policies that have since been updated.”

The company added in a statement, “Since 2019, we have made significant improvements to our practices and launched advanced tools that make it easier to manage location data.”