The French data regulator, CNIL, (the French equivalent of the UK’s ICO) has fined Google €50m, a record when it comes to data protection fines.
The fine follows an investigation after a complaint from privacy rights groups noyb and La Quadrature du Net in May last year about the way consent is collected by Google, for its ad personalisation services.
The case against Google relates to a number of issues with the lawful collection (or apparent lack) of consent:
- the fact that the whole process of giving consent was complicated and spread across various documents, where the GDPR requires “the request for consent shall be presented in a manner which is clearly distinguishable from the other matters, in an intelligible and easily accessible form, using clear and plain language.“
- the use of pre-ticked boxes, where the GDPR requires consent to be “freely given” with a positive action to opt-in and give that consent
- consent was being collected for all processing activities and was not granular enough; for consent to be lawful the GDPR requires that “When the processing has multiple purposes, consent should be given for all of them.”
Google are said to be considering the next steps which could include appealing against the decision.
Mark Gracey, founder of the Digital Compliance Hub says “the Google fine highlights the importance of being open and transparent with your customers about how you’re planning on using their data and whilst there’s been a lot in the news recently about the tech giants, these GDPR rules apply to all of us, no matter how big or small our business”.
The Digital Compliance Hub supports businesses with their data compliance by offering a support helpline backed up with a library of support tools, guidance, checklists, templates and advice. Think of it as an alternative to the ICO and much more practical and helpful. More details about the Hub can be found here: https://digitalcompliancehub.co.uk/ and it’s currently possible to sign up for a 14-day free trial.
Follow the Digital Compliance Hub on social media:
https://www.facebook.com/flavourfy/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/digitalcompliancehub/
https://twitter.com/digicomphub
photo credit https://todaytesting.com