The Irish Data Protection Authority imposed a fine of 403 million euros, equivalent to about 463 million dollars, on Google, due to violations related to the way it processes users’ geographical location data.
The authority said that the investigation focused on three main services: Web & App Activity and Location History and Location Accuracy, and concluded that Google did not handle location data in accordance with the requirements of the European data protection law GDPR during the period covered by the investigation.
The investigation began in 2020, and looked into Google's practices between 2018 and 2020, including the way location data was Collected and used within the Company's services.
For its part, Google said that the issue relates to old policies that have been updated since that time, noting that it has added new tools that give users greater ability to control site data and delete it automatically.
The Data Protection Authority obligated Irish Google to take measures to ensure that the processing of location data complies with European rules within six months.
