The massive €403 million fine handed down to Google by the Data Protection Commission (DPC) is “welcome but long overdue,” according to Social Democrats TD Sinéad Gibney.
The DPC investigation found failures by Google in how the tech giant processed people’s location data.
In addition to this significant fine, the company has been ordered to bring its processing into compliance within six months.
“As recently as February, the DPC confirmed to me that it had never taken a single Article 60 final decision regarding Google since the commission was established. That’s why today’s news of this fine is so welcome,” the Dublin Rathdown TD said.
Gibney said, “in the last 12 months we have seen the Grok scandal; a heightened awareness of online harms in our daily lives; and the revelation that the location data of Irish people was freely available for sale. Despite all this, Big Tech have mostly been able to act with impunity thanks to insufficient regulation and enforcement.”
The Soc Dems media spokesperson said “it is also deeply concerning that it took the DPC six years to take Google to task for these breaches, which raises questions about resourcing.”
“If we cannot receive justice in a timely fashion, there is a danger that online actors will believe they can get away with using our data improperly,” Gibney said.
“It is high time that our regulators step up to the mark in holding these companies to account, and that they have the full support of the government in doing so.”