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Google, Apple User Data Fine Overview:
- Who: Apple and Google are facing a total of €20 million in fines after a ruling by Italy’s antitrust agency.
- Why: The Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato found the two companies were abusing user data by aggressively acquiring it for commercial purposes.
- Where: The fines were assessed in Italy.
Google and Apple have been hit with a total of €20 million ($23 million) in fines by Italy’s antitrust agency for abusing user data.
The Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato fined the two companies €10 million each for aggressively acquiring users’ data for commercial purposes, Law360 reports. The fines are the maximum that can be issued for violating Italy’s consumer code.
The antitrust regulator found that Apple and Google did not tell consumers how their data would be used when they created an Apple ID or Google account, nor while they were using the tech giants’ services.
Both of the companies collect user data to boost sales of their products, and in Google’s case user data supports online advertising, search tools, cloud computing, and software, the watchdog said.
Apple, Google User Data Collection ‘Aggressive’, Says Consumer Watchdog
In a statement translated to English, the agency said the companies had broken the rules twice by failing to provide information on how they collect and use user data, adding they also employed “aggressive tactics” when collecting user data for commercial means, Law360 reports.
“In these contexts, the authority held that there is a consumption relationship between the users and the two operators, even in the absence of a monetary outlay, the consideration for which is represented by the data they transfer using the services of Google and Apple,” the agency wrote.
It added that Google used presets to guide users into accepting that their data would be transferred to the company for commercial use and Apple did not even give users the option to opt out of their data being used.
Apple told Law360 that it believed that the authority had erred and it would be appealing the decision, adding “Apple has a long-standing commitment to the privacy of users, and we work incredibly hard to design products and features that protect data.”
Google also said it would be appealing the decision, saying that the company gives people “simple controls to manage their information and limit the use of personal data, and we work hard to be fully compliant with the consumer protection rules.”
Earlier this week, Apple was hit with another fine—this time €200 million—for anticompetitive behavior surrounding its Apple and Beats products.
In November, the UK Supreme Court tossed a class action lawsuit lodged against Google by iPhone users who alleged Google secretly took more than five million Apple iPhone users’ data by bypassing their phones’ security settings to access their Safari browsing history.
Google, its AI company DeepMind Technologies, and the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust face a class action lawsuit filed on behalf of about 1.6 million NHS users whose private medical information was shared between the companies.
How do you feel about Apple and Google’s use of consumer data? Let us know in the comments section!
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