GoKawiilIreland's DPC fines Google €403 million over location data GDPR breaches
Ireland's Data Protection Commission has imposed a €403 million ($463M) fine on Google following a probe into three features—Web & App Activity, Location History, and Location Accuracy—that operated during the GDPR's early enforcement window from May 2018 to February 2020. The regulator concluded Google failed to properly justify its processing of location data and kept that data longer than necessary, while also falling short on transparency requirements across all three tools.
GoKawiil's interpretation of the reporting above, not reported fact.
This penalty adds to a growing list of major GDPR enforcement actions against Google in Ireland, reinforcing that vague consent settings and indefinite data retention remain legal liabilities for tech giants operating in the EU. It signals to other companies handling location data that regulators are scrutinizing not just whether users technically agreed to tracking, but whether they truly understood what was being collected and for how long.
- Google was fined €403 million by Ireland's DPC for GDPR violations tied to location data.
- The probe covered three features—Web & App Activity, Location History, and Location Accuracy—used between 2018 and 2020.
- Regulators found Google lacked transparency and retained location data longer than necessary.
Source: bleepingcomputer.com, 2026-09-21
Published there as: “Google fined €403 million over location data privacy violations”
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