Overview
- The Data Protection Commission announced the €403 million penalty on Monday after a probe found Google accessed and kept users' location data without adequate consent between May 2018 and February 2020.
- The DPC concluded that opaque disclosures and excessive retention let Google infer interests and tailor ads, which reduced users' control over their personal data.
- Ireland's investigation began in 2020 following complaints from European consumer groups and the regulator handled the case as lead authority because Google's European base is in Ireland.
- Google said the issues reflected past policy failures, noted it began changing practices in 2019, and pointed to new controls it has added for users to manage location data.
- The fine is the DPC's fourth-largest against a major tech company and follows other recent EU penalties, a trend that could lead to stricter enforcement and more oversight of how platforms collect location information.