Google fined $462 million after regulators uncover problems with a familiar feature

The hits keep coming for Google. Ireland’s Data Protection Commission announced on Monday that it has fined Google €403 million, or about $462 million, over the tech giant’s processing of location data. The penalty, which is among the largest ever imposed by the Irish watchdog authority, follows an investigation that began in early 2020 and ultimately found that the Mountain View, California-based company infringed on European Union privacy rules known as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The commission also ordered that Google bring its processing of location data into compliance within six months. The GDPR requires that processing of personal data must be carried out in a “lawful, fair and transparent manner,” as Graham Doyle, deputy commissioner noted in a statement. “As a result of Google’s failures in this regard, individuals could have been unaware that their location was being used to, for example, influence them with ads or to infer their interests, and could lose control over their personal data,” Doyle said. “The retention of users’ location data for longer than necessary aggravated this loss of control.” In a statement to Fast Company, a Google spokesperson…