Google and Meta, formerly known as Facebook, must now pay a $238 million combined fine to France (via Engadget). CNIL, France's data regulator, fined both companies
because they violated the EU's privacy rules. Both tech giants have
made it easier for users to accept cookies on their websites, but they
have not made it as simple for users to reject the tracking cookies.
CNIL
stated that the sites: facebook.com, google.fr, and youtube.com offer
immediate acceptance for tracking cookies only by tapping a button.
However, these websites don't offer a similar button for rejecting the
cookies. Instead, they made it more difficult for users to refuse to be
tracked by the websites.
Making it easier to accept cookies than
to refuse them, according to the CNIL's restricted committee, affects
the user's freedom of consent. When a user visits a website, they want
to find what they're looking for as quickly as possible. By making the
acceptance of the cookies easier than the refusal, Google and Meta
influence the choice of the user in favor of consent.
CNIL fined
Google €150 million ($170 million) and Meta €60 million ($68 million).
In addition to the fines, CNIL mandated that Google and Meta provide a
way for French users to reject tracking cookies as easily as they would
accept them. Both companies were given three months to comply with the
mandate. If they do not comply with the order, both companies will have
to pay 100 000 euros ($113 000) per day as a penalty.
In a statement, Google told Politico, "People
trust us to respect their right to privacy and keep them safe. We
understand our responsibility to protect that trust and are committing
to further changes and active work with the CNIL in light of this
decision under the ePrivacy Directive."
Meta also made a statement according to the CNIL's decision, saying, "We
are reviewing the authority's decision and remain committed to working
with relevant authorities. Our cookie consent controls provide people
with greater control over their data, including a new settings menu on
Facebook and Instagram where people can revisit and manage their
decisions at any time, and we continue to develop and improve these
controls."
The CNIL, France's National Commission on
Informatics and Liberty, is in charge of ensuring that the data privacy
law is followed in the use of personal data in France.
Source: https://www.phonearena.com/
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