By Nawal Sayed
CAIRO, Jan. 22 (SEE) – French regulators fined Google 50 million euros ($57 million) for breaching European Union online privacy rules, the biggest such penalty levied against a U.S. tech giant, according to media reports.
France’s data protection watchdog known as CNIL said Monday that Google failed to fully disclose to users how their personal information is collected.
The French watchdog accused the world’s biggest search engine of lacking transparency and clarity in the way it informs users about its handling of personal data and failed to properly obtain their consent for personalized ads.
“The amount decided, and the publicity of the fine, are justified by the severity of the infringements observed regarding the essential principles of the GDPR: transparency, information and consent,” the CNIL said in a statement.
On its part, Google issued a statement saying that people “expect high standards of transparency and control from us. We’re deeply committed to meeting those expectations and the consent requirements of the GDPR.”
The CNIL decision follows complaints by two non-governmental organizations, None Of Your Business (noyb) and La Quadrature du Net (LQDN), which the regulator said had been mandated by 10,000 people to present the case, according to Reuters report published on Tuesday.
“More than just a significant amount of money, this sanction is particularly detrimental to Google as it directly challenges its business model and will, in all likelihood, require them to deeply modify their provision of services,” Sonia Cissé, Managing Associate at Linklaters told Reuters.
