France Fines Google Nearly $57Mln For Misusing Personal Details

Daniyal Sohail Published January 21, 2019 | 10:12 PM

France's online data protection authority CNIL announced on Monday a fine of 50 million euros ($56.8 million) against search giant Google for its handling of users' private details

PARIS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 21st January, 2019) France's online data protection authority CNIL announced on Monday a fine of 50 million Euros ($56.8 million) against search giant Google for its handling of users' private details.

"The CNIL's restricted committee imposed a financial penalty of 50 Million euros against the company GOOGLE LLC, in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), for lack of transparency, inadequate information and lack of valid consent regarding the ads personalization," it said in a statement.

The hefty penalty was imposed for the first time in line with EU's new data protection guidelines.

It was based on complaints from two nonprofits. One of them, by La Quadrature du Net association, was mandated by 10,000 people, the CNIL said.

The regulator accused Google of continued breaches that were still observed at the time of fining. It said the California-based firm was not fully transparent about its practice of collecting users' personal details, hiding it behind many clicks, links and buttons, and did not validly obtain consent from them to use this data to personalize ads.