EU fines Google €403 million for improperly using location data

Ireland's data protection watchdog, acting on behalf of the EU, said Monday it had fined Google €403 million ($462 million) for improperly using users' location data, eight years after consumer groups complained. The fine is the fourth largest imposed by the Data Protection Commission, the regulator said in a statement. Read moreEU fines Google €890 million for competition breaches, risking Trump ire The DPC is responsible for overseeing Google at the European level because, like most tech giants, the company has its European headquarters in Ireland. Google infringed the EU's General Data Protection Regulation between May 2018 and February 2020, the DPC said. In its final decision after opening an inquiry in February 2020, the watchdog ruled that Google infringed GDPR "in respect of the lawfulness and fairness of its processing of location data in web and app activity and location history". DPC deputy commissioner Graham Doyle said "as a result of Google's failures... individuals could have been unaware that their location was being used to, for example, influence them with ads or to infer their interests". He added that "the retention of users' location data for longer than necess...