France's highest administrative court has upheld a fine of 50 million euros ($56 million) Google was ordered to pay for not being "sufficiently clear and transparent" with Android users about their data protection options.
Google was first slapped with the fine in January 2019, the first penalty for a U.S. tech giant under new European data privacy rules that took effect in 2018.
Google appealed the penalty issued by the French data privacy watchdog to the Council of State, France's final arbiter in such cases.
The council ruled Friday that the National Data Protection Commission had the right to sanction Google and that the fine was not disproportionate, "given the particular seriousness" and duration of Google's failings.
In response, Google said it would look at making changes.
In force since May 2018, the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, is aimed at clarifying individual rights to personal data collected by companies. It requires companies to use plain language to explain what they're doing with data.
In sanctioning Google, France's data watchdog had said Google users were "not sufficiently informed" about what they were agreeing to as the company collected data for targeted advertisements.
It faulted Google for making users take too many steps, "sometimes up to 5 or 6 actions," to find out how and why their data is being used and for being "too generic and vague" in descriptions of why data is processed.
The Council of State concurred and faulted Google for "particularly intrusive" data collection methods.
It said the firm "has not provided sufficiently clear and transparent information to users of the Android operating system and has not enabled them to give free and informed consent to the processing of their personal data for the purpose of personalizing advertisements."
Google said Friday that it has "invested in industry-leading tools" to help its users "understand and control how their data is used."
"This case was not about whether consent is needed for personalized advertising, but about how exactly it should be obtained," the company said. "In light of this decision, we will now review what changes we need to make."
Civil rights groups call on major corporations to stick with DEI programs
A broad group of civil rights organizations called on the CEOs and board members of major companies Thursday to maintain their commitments to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives that have come under attack online and in lawsuits.
An open letter signed by 19 organizations and directed at the leaders of Fortune 1000 companies said companies that abandon their DEI programs are shirking their fiduciary responsibility to employees, consumers and shareholders.
The civil rights groups included the NAACP, the National Organization for Women, the League of United Latin American Citizens, Asian Americans Advancing Justice and the Human Rights Campaign Foundation.
"Diversity, equity and inclusion programs, policies, and practices make business-sense and they're broadly popular among the public, consumers, and employees," their statement read. "But a small, well-funded, and extreme group of right-wing activists is attempting to pressure companies into abandoning their DEI programs."
Companies such as Ford, Lowes, John Deere, Molson Coors and Harley-Davidson recently announced they would pull back on their diversity, equity and inclusion policies after facing pressure from conservative activists who were emboldened by recent victories in the courtroom.
Many major corporations have been examining their diversity programs in the wake of a Supreme Court decision last year that declared race-based affirmative action programs in college admissions unconstitutional. Dozens of cases have been filed making similar arguments about employers. Critics of DEI programs say the initiatives provide benefits to people of one race or sexual orientation while excluding others.
In their letter, the civil rights organizations, which also included... Read More