Irish Data Protection Authority fines Google €403 million

The Irish data protection authority DPC has fined Alphabet's Google search engine €403 million. Between May 2018 and February 2020, Google violated the EU General Data Protection Regulation by processing its users' location data.

This concerned the functions “Web and App Activity”, “Location History” and “Location Accuracy”. Google was also ordered by the DPC to bring its data processing into compliance within six months.

DPC deputy director Graham Doyle explained that users of Google services "may not have been aware that their location was being used, for example, to influence them through advertising or to make inferences about their interests." These data protection violations were made worse by the fact that Google stored the location data “longer than necessary”.

"This case involves old policies that have since been updated," said a Google spokesperson. "Since 2019, we have significantly evolved our practices and introduced powerful tools that simplify the management of location data."

EU headquarters in Ireland

The fine is the fourth highest of the fines imposed on Google by the DPC to date. Google has its EU headquarters in Ireland, which is why the DPC is responsible for enforcing EU law against the US company.

Three additional official investigations are currently underway against Google. The authorities said these were all in an advanced stage.