This is not the first time that two technology companies have received warning bells from the EU due to misconduct.This time National Commission for Informatics and Freedom (CNIL), French privacy authority, approved 100 million euros paid to Google With others 35 million euros to Amazon.fr The act of installing advertising cookies on a user’s computer without the user’s consent.
CNIL has proved that the amount of sanctions for “twice violations of Article 82 of the Data Protection Act” is correct, emphasizing the “substantial revenue” that the company has received from advertising revenue indirectly generated by the data collected by its “cookies” , And pointed out that as far as search engines are concerned, these practices have affected nearly 50 million users in France.
Amazon will pay 35 million euros
Since December 12, 2019, CNIL has been in control on the French Amazon website. As a result of research, they found that when a user visits the website (amazon.fr), cookies can be automatically installed on the computer without any permission. Most of these cookies are used for advertising purposes.
Although Amazon has changed its consent to cookies, the French regulator is still stating that the new flag is still unclear:The slogan also does not indicate to users that they have the right to refuse these cookies and the means used for this purpose.“
GOOGLE LLC and GOOGLE IRELAND LIMITED will pay a total of 100 million euros
As far as Google is concerned, the CNIL investigation began on March 16, 2020, when it was a cookie installed by verified google.fr users who did not accept any content.
The common errors detected in the Google cookie in French are:
- Lack of user consent. They detected from CNIL that people who visited google.fr installed a series of cookies without their consent.
- Lack of information. The technology company will not notify consumers of installed cookies. When it displays a slogan with “Google’s confidentiality rules” information, the technology company will not include information about the installed cookies.
- Part of the “opposition” mechanism failed. When a person rejects cookies, one of the cookies is stored on their computer and continues to read the data.
Google has already taken action, Stop the automatic placement of advertising cookies When the user arrives at the google.fr page after updating in September 2020. However, CNIL stated:The new informational banner still does not allow users to understand the purpose of using cookies, and Not let them know that they can reject these cookies“.
Both companies tried to change their practices, but were not 100% successful. therefore, CNIL Warn them that they will review the use of cookies within three months, and if the method of operation is not corrected, they will be subject to new sanctions and may be sanctioned. A daily fine of 100,000 Euros for daily delays.