Irish privacy regulator fines Google €403 million over location data processing

Google has been fined 403 million euros (USD 463 million) for breaching the European Union's strict privacy rules because it mishandled users' location data, the bloc's data privacy watchdog said Monday.

Ireland's Data Protection Commission said its investigation found Google did not lawfully or fairly process location data in users' Web & App Activity, a Google setting that tracks browsing and search history, and in their Location History, a service that maps places they've been with their mobile phones.

Regulators also found the company failed to be lawful, fair and transparent when it processed personal data in its Location Accuracy feature in the Android mobile operating system.