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The Irish Data Protection Authority announced on Monday that it has imposed a fine of 403 million euros ($462 million) on Google, for violating rules related to the geographic data of users, on behalf of the European Union.
The Irish authority responsible for enforcing the bloc's rules in this area said that the technology giant violated the European General Data Protection Regulation between May 2018 and February 2020.
In its final decision following an investigation that began in February 2020, the authority concluded that Google violated the European regulation "in relation to the lawfulness and fairness of its processing of location data within web activity, applications, and location history"
Graham Doyle, Deputy Commissioner of the Authority, said that "as a result of Google's failures, individuals may not have been aware that their location data was being used, for example, to influence them through advertisements or to infer their interests"
He added that "the company's retention of users' location data for longer than necessary exacerbated their loss of control over it"
In addition to the fine, the authority ordered Google to bring its data processing into compliance with the rules within six months.
In response, Google said that "the case concerns outdated policies that have since been updated"
The company added in a statement "since 2019, we have made significant improvements to our practices and launched advanced tools that facilitate the management of location data"
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