UPDATED 23:17 EDT / MAY 22 2019

POLICY

Google to face GDPR probe from Irish regulator

The Irish Data Protection Commission announced Wednesday that it has begun an investigation of Google LLC’s advertising practices across the European Union.

“The purpose of the inquiry is to establish whether processing of personal data carried out at each stage of an advertising transaction is in compliance with the relevant provisions of the General Data Protection Regulation,” the watchdog said in a press release. “The GDPR principles of transparency and data minimization, as well as Google’s retention practices, will also be examined.”

Google’s ad exchange system, which companies use to target consumers, will come under close scrutiny. If it’s found out that data has been misused under EU laws, then the company could be fined up to 4 percent of its annual revenue. That would be about $5.4 billion.

This comes after a complaint was made by the Brave web browser, which in a blog post on Wednesday accused Google of engaging in “surveillance capitalism.”

“Every time a person visits a website and is shown a ‘behavioral’ ad on a website, intimate personal data that describes each visitor, and what they are watching online, is broadcast to tens or hundreds of companies,” Brave said in its initial complaint. “Advertising technology companies broadcast these data widely in order to solicit potential advertisers’ bids for the attention of the specific individual visiting the website.” The company said a breach under GDPR happens when users’ data is not protected.

Google responded in a statement by saying it welcomes the investigation and “the opportunity for further clarification of Europe’s data protection rules for real-time bidding.” The company added, “Authorized buyers using our systems are subject to stringent policies and standards.”

If Google is found guilty, on top of paying that whopping fine the company will also have to think about making profound changes to its ad system lest it pay more fines in the future.

In January, France’s regulatory body fined Google $57 million for breaching the new EU regulations. In that case, it was about how consumer data obtained on Android devices and also how Google failed to disclose to users how their data would be used. After that, Google said it would create higher standards of transparency for consumers relating to data collection.

Image: Simon Steinberger/Pixabay

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