Google fined €403 million over location data practices

Ireland’s privacy regulator has fined Google €403 million ($463 million) over how it handled users’ location data and ordered the company to bring its practices into compliance with EU law.

The case examined what Google collected, how it explained that collection to users and how long it kept the data between May 2018 and February 2020. Web & App Activity can include location information alongside searches and activity in Google services, while Location History maps the movements of users who opt in. Investigators also examined Android’s Location Accuracy feature, which improves a phone’s location estimate and is available even without a Google Account.

The Data Protection Commission found that Google did not process location data lawfully and fairly through Web & App Activity and Location History, and that it kept some of that data longer than necessary. It also found shortcomings in how Google explained all three features. According to the regulator, users could have been unaware that information about where they went was being used to influence ads or infer their interests.

Google has six months to bring its location-data processing into compliance. The company told the Associated Press that the investigation concerns older policies and said it has significantly changed how it manages location data since 2019.