French court slaps down Google’s appeal against $57M GDPR fine

techcrunch ^ | 6/19/20 | Natasha Lomas

[martin_fierro]

France’s top court for administrative law has dismissed Google’s appeal against a $57M fine issued by the data watchdog last year for not making it clear enough to Android users how it processes their personal information.

The State Council issued the decision today, affirming the data watchdog CNIL’s earlier finding that Google did not provide “sufficiently clear” information to Android users — which in turn meant it had not legally obtained their consent to use their data for targeted ads.

“Google’s request has been rejected,” a spokesperson for the Conseil D’Etat confirmed to TechCrunch via email.<<--snip-->>

[martin_fierro]

DOWNSIDE: Yet another EU bureaucracy weighs in UPSIDE: Google gets $lapped (admittedly for an amount that it earns in about 8 hours)

[McGavin999]

Gee, if we started fining Google and the other tech giants we could retire the Covid debt pretty fast.

[MarkL]

As much as I hate dealing with the security issues that GDPR introduces (and even worse, dealing with the requirements of the German Workers Council,) in IT Security, the one thing that I do believe that we need in the US is the ability for American's to take control of their PII, their personally identifiable information.

Under GDPR, you can demand to know what information any organization has on you, to whom it's been sold, and demand that they purge it, after first giving you the information.

Right now in the USA, your personal information is Google, Facebook, Twitter, and a myriad of other companies' "product" (even medical information, which is covered under HIPPA,) which they market and sell to other organizations. As individuals, we really have no control over where this information is marketed and sold, so we effectively have no privacy. This is why your PII details could possibly be exposed by an organization that's been breeched with which you've never even dealt with.

It effectively gives you some control over where and how your PII is allowed to be marketed.

Mark

[SmokingJoe]

$57 millon?
Google should be fined $57 Billion for their crimes against humanity.
Hopefully another time

[martin_fierro]

Right now in the USA, your personal information is Google, Facebook, Twitter, and a myriad of other companies' "product" (even medical information, which is covered under HIPPA,) which they market and sell to other organizations. As individuals, we really have no control over where this information is marketed and sold, so we effectively have no privacy.

Well, that is changing. The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) went into effect 1/1/20, plus there's a coming CA ballot initiative aimed to make the CCPA even more stringent.

Then look for many other states to enact their own laws, with a Federal version likely to follow.