France: Google hit with US$57M GDPR fine

France’s data privacy watchdog has fined Google €50 million (US$57 million), the first penalty for a US tech giant under new European data privacy rules that took effect last year, reported the Walls Street Journal.

The National Data Protection Commission (CNIL) announced Monday, January 21, it fined the US internet giant for “lack of transparency, inadequate information and lack of valid consent” regarding ad personalization for users.

Implemented in 2018, the sweeping privacy rules, commonly referred to as GDPR, have set a global standard that has forced Google and its tech peers in Silicon Valley to rethink their data-collection practices or risk sky-high fines. The US lacks a similar, overarching federal consumer privacy law, a deficiency in the eyes of privacy rights advocates that has elevated Europe as the world’s de facto privacy cop.

Despite Google’s recent changes to comply with the EU rules, the CNIL announced in a statement that “the infringements observed deprive the users of essential guarantees regarding processing operations that can reveal important parts of their private life since they are based on a huge amount of data, a wide variety of services and almost unlimited possible combinations.”

Full Content: Washington Post

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