France fined Google and Facebook a total of 210 million euros.
Paris:
French regulators have fined Google and Facebook 210 million euros ($237 million) over their use of “cookies,” which are used to track data users online, officials said on Thursday. said.
The 150 million euro fine imposed on Google was a record by France’s National Commission for Information Technology and Freedom (CNIL) against the company in December 2020, beating the previous fine of 100 million euros related to cookies.
Facebook was fined 60 million euros.
“The CNIL has determined that the facebook.com, google.fr and youtube.com sites do not allow users to refuse the use of cookies, as they have to accept,” the regulatory body said.
CNIL said both platforms have three months to adapt their practices, after which France will impose a fine of 100,000 euros per day.
Google told AFP it would change its behavior following the decision.
“In line with the expectations of Internet users… we remain committed to actively working with CNIL as we implement new changes,” the US firm said in a statement.
Cookies are small packets of data that are set on a user’s computer when they visit a website, allowing web browsers to save information about their session.
They are highly valuable to Google and Facebook as ways to personalize advertising – their primary source of revenue.
But privacy advocates have long pushed back and a European Union law passed in 2018 made stricter rules on internet companies, forcing them to seek direct consent of users before installing cookies on their computers.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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