Ireland’s privacy watchdog has launched an investigation to determine if the way Google LLC tracks users’ location is legal.

The probe was prompted by a number of complaints from European consumer organizations, Ireland’s Data Protection Commission detailed today in the statement announcing the inquiry. The watchdog said the groups raised concerns about “the legality of Google’s processing of location data and the transparency surrounding that processing.”

Because Google’s European business is based in Ireland, local authorities have the mandate to investigate potential violations of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation privacy regulation by the search giant. Many other multinational firms’ regional headquarters are based in Ireland as well and the Data Protection Commission has as a result taken on a central role in GDPR enforcement. The watchdog currently has more than 20 open privacy investigations into companies, including Twitter Inc., Apple Inc. and others.

The  probe of Google is launching with two primary objectives. Authorities will “seek to establish whether Google has a valid legal basis for processing the location data of its users and whether it meets its obligations as a data controller with regard to transparency,” detailed the statement announcing the probe.

GDPR violations carry a fine of up to 20 million euros (about $22 million) or 4% of a company’s total global revenues.

Google has taken steps in recent months to improve its services’ data privacy features. In September, the company responded to a controversy over Google Assistant conversation recordings by releasing updated settings that let users more easily opt out of having their recordings reviewed by human software testers. Google also pledged to retain audio for shorter time periods. 

More recently, and perhaps also more pertinently to the new investigation, the Alphabet Inc. subsidiary added an Incognito option for Maps that disables location tracking. By default, the service keeps a detailed log of where the user travels. The Data Protection Commission didn’t specify exactly which parts of Google’s business it will probe, but it’s possible the regulator will take a look at how Maps tracks consumers. 

Other tech companies facing regulatory scrutiny over their privacy practices have also rolled out new features recently to give users more control of their data. Apple, which is the subject of a separate GDPR probe in Ireland, introduced an array of privacy features with iOS 13 in September. And Facebook Inc. has a new tool that allows users to block the social network from tracking what they do on other websites. 

Photo of Google’s Ireland office: Google