Search engine outfit Google could face fines of up to $18.6 million if it does not stop violating the privacy of internet users in the Netherlands, the Dutch data protection agency warned.
The DPA said that Google is breaching the country’s data protection act by using people’s private information such as browsing history and location data to target them with customised ads.
Google has until the end of February to change how it handles the data it collects from individual web users or will have to start writing cheques.
The company’s handling of user data under its new privacy guidelines, introduced in 2012, has also been under investigation in five other European countries – France, Germany, Britain, Italy and Spain.
Jacob Kohnstamm, chairman of the Dutch DPA appears to have had a gutsful of Google prevaricating.
“This has been ongoing since 2012 and we hope our patience will no longer be tested,” said.
Google needs to adequately inform users in advance and ask for permission before it uses data in this way, the DPA said.
It ordered the company to stop the violations or face incremental fines up to a maximum of 15 million euros. It said Google must start informing users of its actions and seeking their consent.
Google should be careful, the Dutch managed to humiliate the British Empire on more than one occasion and a tech Empire should be a doddle.
