Overview
- The Irish Data Protection Commission fined Google €403 million on Monday for breaching the EU’s GDPR in the way it handled users’ geolocation information.
- The ruling covers Google features and practices from 2018 to 2020, including Web & App Activity, Location History and Location Accuracy, and says those practices left users unaware their location could be used to infer interests.
- Google said the decision concerns historical rules and pointed to changes and new tools introduced from 2019 that give people clearer controls over location data.
- The DPC said Google now faces three other investigations at advanced stages, signaling continued scrutiny of the company’s data practices in Europe.
- The fine is the DPC’s fourth-largest and follows its €1.2 billion penalty for Meta in 2023, highlighting Ireland’s central role in enforcing EU data rules for U.S. tech firms.