The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) has fined Google €403 million for violating the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). According to Politico, as cited by RBC-Ukraine, this is the fourth-largest fine ever issued by the Irish regulator and, notably, the first serious sanction directed specifically at Google. Ireland has traditionally been responsible for overseeing many global technology companies whose European headquarters are located on the country's territory.
The nature of the violations: dark patterns and geolocation
DPC Commissioners Des Hogan, Dáil Sutherland and Niamh Sweeney explained that the fine was imposed for four violations related to how Google processed and stored data on users' location in the Web&App Activity, Location History and Location Accuracy features, as well as for the lack of transparency in these processes. Consumer organizations from various EU countries had claimed that the company used dark patterns and unfair practices to encourage people to enable features that transmitted data about their geolocation. It was precisely these complaints that triggered the launch of the investigation back in 2020.
Google's reaction: "the rules are outdated"
Google spokesperson Mathilde Mésen commented on the regulator's decision, stating that the case concerns outdated rules that the company has since updated. "Since 2019, we have significantly changed our policy and launched convenient tools for managing geolocation data," she noted. In effect, Google acknowledges that at the time of the investigation the company's practices may not have met GDPR requirements, but emphasizes that the issue was resolved before the final decision was issued.
Three additional investigations underway
The €403 million fine is not Google's only problem before the Irish regulator. The DPC is currently conducting three further large-scale investigations into the company: the first concerns data processing by the PaLM2 artificial intelligence model, the second — the operation of Google's personalized advertising system, and the third — the company's account registration process. The cumulative financial risk for the corporation in the event of unfavorable outcomes in all cases could exceed one billion euros.
The broader context: AI and statistics
Against the backdrop of regulatory pressure on Big Tech, researchers have drawn attention to yet another phenomenon: during the Emergence project, artificial intelligence algorithms began creating their own language when communicating with one another. After just a few days of work in the project, the models formed new words and metaphors whose meaning specialists did not decipher immediately. In parallel, Google has reached an agreement with the UN to create a new statistical database that is intended to help neural networks provide more accurate answers. The decision was made after testing showed that popular chatbots gave the correct figure in less than a quarter of cases.
