Google appeal €50 million GDPR fine
CNIL, the Data Protection Authority in France, announced they has issued a €50 million euro fine to Google for GDPR violations. As expected, Google quickly appealed the decision claiming it had ‘worked hard’ to create a transparent consent process and was ‘concerned about the impact of this ruling on publishers, original content creators and tech companies in Europe and beyond.’
Google face further GDPR probes from Sweden’s Data Protection Authority
Datainspektionen, Sweden’s Data Protection Authority, announced a probe into Google’s handling of location data and web browsing histories. This follows the €50 million fine issued by the CNIL for different violations.
Complaints add further evidence against Google
The real-time bidding complaint filed in 2018 alleged ‘wide-scale and systematic breaches of the data protection regime’. Complaints were originally filed to the ICO (Data Protection Authority for the UK) and the DPC (Data Protection Authority for Ireland).
Additional evidence includes lists of marketing categories used by Google and the IAB which, they claim, demonstrate that sensitive inferences are systematically made. Furthermore, users seem unable to verify, amend or delete their assigned categories.
Categories include assumptions on political beliefs, religious beliefs, substance abuse, mental health, physical health and more.
Microsoft calls for regulation of facial recognition technologies
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella called for regulation of facial recognition technologies, or risk seeing a ‘race to the bottom’ as facial recognition and artificial intelligence starts being used for harmful ends.
Nadella also added to the technology leaders calling for global GDPR legislation.
Stationers jump on the GDPR bandwagon
The GDPR has given rise to a dubious marketing ploy by stationers, with GDPR Compliant shredders, visitor books, filing cabinets and recycling bins cropping up on Amazon.