Google has been fined 403 million euros ($463 million) for violating the European Union’s strict data protection rules by improperly processing users’ location data, the bloc’s data protection regulator said on Monday.
The Irish Data Protection Commission said its investigation found that Google did not lawfully or fairly process location data in users’ web and app activity, a Google setting that tracks browsing and search history, and in their Location History, a service that maps places they have visited on their mobile phones.
The regulators also found that the company did not act lawfully, fairly and transparently when processing personal data as part of the location accuracy feature of the Android mobile operating system.
Ireland is the lead regulator for Google in the 27-nation EU, as the US tech giant’s European headquarters are in Dublin.
The investigation, launched six years ago, examined how Google applied EU data protection rules, known as the General Data Protection Regulation, from its entry into force in 2018 to February 2020.
“This case involves historical policies that have since been updated,” Google said in a statement. “Since 2019, we have significantly evolved our practices and introduced robust tools that simplify the management of location data.”
Regulators said location data is a type of personal data collected by Google that can be used to draw conclusions about a person’s location.
“Location data can bring both benefit and harm to individuals,” said Assistant Commissioner Graham Doyle. “It can significantly increase the utility of online services, but it can also reveal a significant amount of information about an individual, including information that is inherently private.”
It is the fourth highest EU data protection fine imposed by the Irish regulator, which has previously imposed higher fines on TikTok and Meta, including a €1.2 billion fine for Meta.
The regulator said three additional privacy investigations with Google were ongoing.
Related: Dior, Louis Vuitton and Tiffany have been fined $25 million in South Korea following data breaches
Related: TikTok reaches $400 million settlement with US Department of Justice over children’s privacy issues
Related: Uber was fined nearly $1 billion by Dutch regulators for automatically suspending driver accounts
