Tag: Google

Danish watchdogs ban Google Chromebooks and Google Workspace in municipality

26. August 2022

In July 2022, after an investigation related to a data breach was carried out by the Danish Data Protection Authority (Datailsynet), Google Chromebooks and Google Workspace were banned in schools in the municipality of Helsingor. The DPA ruled that the risk assessment carried out by city officials shows that the processing of personal data by Google does not meet GDPR requirements. In particular, data transfers have been targeted by the Authority: the Data Processing Agreement allows data transfer to third countries for analytical and statistical support, though the data are primarily stored in Google’s European facilities.

This decision comes in a moment of tension in the world of personal data between Europe and the United States of America: other notorious cases (some still ongoing) are the case of the Irish Data Protection Authority vs. Facebook (now part of Meta Inc.), and the case of the German Federal Cartel Office vs. Facebook. European watchdogs have found that in many cases the American tech giants’ policies do not meet the requirements established by the GDPR. This could be traced back to a lack of legal framework in the field of privacy and personal data protection in the United States, were these companies are based.

This decision was taken in the aftermath of the Schrems II ruling by the European Court of Justice, which stated that the pre-existing agreement on data transfers between Europe and the US (so-called Privacy Shield)was not compatible with the GDPR. A new deal is on the table, but not yet approved nor effective.

Google is becoming the target of various investigations by European data watchdogs, above all because of its tool Google Analytics. In January the Austrian Data Protection Authority published an opinion in which it stated that companies using Google Analytics inadvertently transferred customers’ personal data such as IP addresses to the United States, in breach of the GDPR. Italy’s Garante per la Protezione dei Dati Personali published a similar opinion a few weeks later, stating that “the current methods adopted by Google do not guarantee an adequate level of protection of personal data”.

Google launches “Reject All” button on cookie banners

22. April 2022

After being hit with a €150 million fine by France’s data protection agency CNIL earlier in the year for making the process of rejecting cookies unnecessarily confusing and convoluted for users, Google has added a new “Reject All” button to the cookie consent banners that have become ubiquitous on websites in Europe. Users visiting Search and YouTube in Europe while signed out or in incognito mode will soon see an updated cookie dialogue with reject all and accept all buttons.

Previously, users only had two options: “I accept” and “personalize.” While this allowed users to accept all cookies with a single click, they had to navigate through various menus and options if they wanted to reject all cookies. “This update, which began rolling out earlier this month on YouTube, will provide you with equal “Reject All” and “Accept All” buttons on the first screen in your preferred language,” wrote Google product manager Sammit Adhya in a blog post.

According to Google they have kicked off the rollout of the new cookie banner in France and will be extending the change to all Google users in Europe, the U.K., and Switzerland soon.

Google’s plan to include a “Reject All” button on cookie banners after its existing policy violated EU law was also welcomed by Hamburg’s Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information Thomas Fuchs during a presentation of his 2021 activity report.

But the introduction of the “Reject All” button is likely to be only an interim solution because the US giant already presented far-reaching plans at the end of January to altogether remove Google cookies from third-party providers by 2023.

Instead of cookies, the internet giant wants to rely on in-house tracking technology for the Google Privacy Sandbox project.

Belgian DPA declares technical standard used for cookie banner for consent requests illegal

28. March 2022

In a long-awaited decision on the Transparency and Consent Framework (TCF), the Belgian data protection authority APD concludes that this technical standard, which advertisers use to collect consent for targeted advertising on the Internet, does not comply with the principles of legality and fairness. Accordingly, it violates the GDPR.

The ADP’s decision is aligned with other European data protection authorities and has consequences for cookie banners and behavioral online advertising in the EU. The advertising association IAB Europe, which develops and operates the TCF system, must now delete the personal data collected in this way and pay a fine of 250,000 euros. In addition, conditions have been determined for the advertising industry under which the TCF may continue to be used at all.

Almost all companies, including advertising companies such as Google or Amazon, use the mechanism to pass on users’ presumed consent to the processing of their personal data for personalized advertising purposes. This decision will have a major impact on the protection of users’ personal data. This is also confirmed by Hielke Hijmans from APD.

The basic structure of the targeted advertising system is that each visit to a participating website triggers an auction among the providers of advertisements. Based on the desired prices and the user’s data profile, among other things, a decision is made in milliseconds as to which advertisements she will see. For this real-time bidding (RTB) to work, the advertising companies collect data to compile target groups for ads.

If users accept cookies or do not object that the use of their data is in the legitimate interest of the provider, the TCF generates a so-called TC string, which contains information about consent decisions. This identifier forms the basis for the creation of individual profiles and for the auctions in which advertising spaces and, with them, the attention of the desired target group are auctioned off, and is forwarded to partners in the OpenRTB system.

According to the authority, the TC strings already constitute personal data because they enable users to be identified with the IP address and the cookies set by the TCF. In addition, IAB Europe is said to be jointly legally responsible for any data processing via the framework, although IAB Europe has not positioned itself as a data processor, only as a provider of a standard.
The TCF envisions advertising providers invoking a “legitimate interest” in data collection in cookie banners that pop up all the time, rather than asking for consent. This would have to be prohibited, for example, for it to be lawful. The principles of privacy by design and by default are also violated, since consent is literally tricked by design tricks, the data flows are not manageable, and revocation of consent is hardly possible.

Google to launch Google Analytics 4 with aim to address EU Data Protection concerns

24. March 2022

On March 16, 2022, Google announced the launch of its new analytics solution, “Google Analytics 4”. Among other things, “Google Analytics 4” aims to address the most recent data protection developments regarding the use of analytical cookies and the transfers tied to such processing.

The announcement of this new launch comes following 101 complaints made by the non-governmental organization None of Your Business (NOYB) complaints with 30 EEA countries’ data protection authorities (DPA). Assessing the data transfer from the EU to the US after the Schrems II decision of the CJEU for the use of Google Analytics, the French and Austrian DPAs ruled that the transfer of EU personal data from the EU to the U.S. through the use of the Google Analytics cookies is unlawful under the GDPR.

In the press release, Google states that “Google Analytics 4 is designed with privacy at its core to provide a better experience for both our customers and their users. It helps businesses meet evolving needs and user expectations, with more comprehensive and granular controls for data collection and usage.”

However, the most important change that the launch of “Google Analytics 4” will have on the processing of personal data is that it will no longer store users’ IP addresses. This will limit the data processing and resulting transfers that Google Analytics was under scrutiny for in the EU, however it is unclear at this point if the EU DPAs will change their opinion on the use of Google Analytics with this new version.

According to the press release, the current Google Analytics will be suspended starting July 2023, and Google is recommending companies to move onto “Google Analytics 4” as soon as possible.

Apps are tracking personal data despite contrary information

15. February 2022

Tracking in apps enables the app providers to offer users personalized advertising. On the one hand, this causes higher financial revenues for app providers. On the other hand, it leads to approaches regarding data processing which are uncompliant with the GDPR.

For a year now data privacy labels are mandatory and designed to show personal data the app providers access (article in German) and provide to third parties. Although these labels on iPhones underline that data access does not take place, 80% of the analyzed applications that have these labels have access to data by tracking personal information. This is a conclusion of an analysis done by an IT specialist at the University of Oxford.

For example, the “RT News” app, which supposedly does not collect data, actually provides different sets of data to tracking services like Facebook, Google, ComScore and Taboola. However, data transfer activities have to be shown in the privacy labels of apps that may actually contain sensitive information of viewed content.

In particular, apps that access GPS location information are sold by data companies. This constitutes an abuse of data protection because personal data ishandled without being data protection law compliant and provided illegally to third parties.

In a published analysis in the Journal Internet Policy Review, tests of two million Android apps have shown that nearly 90 percent of Google’s Play Store apps share data with third parties directly after launching the app. However, Google indicates that these labels with false information about not tracking personal data come from the app provider. Google therefore evades responsibility for the implementation for these labels. Whereby, Apple asserts that controls of correctness are made.

Putting it into perspective, this issue raises the question whether these privacy labels make the use of apps safer in terms of data protection. One can argue that, if the app developers can simply give themselves these labels under Google, the Apple approach seems more legitimate. It remains to be seen if any actions will be taken in this regard.

UK Supreme Court opposes billion-dollar privacy class action against Google

15. November 2021

On November 10th, 2021, the UK Supreme Court issued a long-awaited judgment in the Lloyd v Google case and denied the class-action lawsuit against Google over alleged illegal tracking of millions of iPhone users back in 2011 and 2012 to proceed further. The 3 billion GBP lawsuit, which was filed on behalf of 4.4 million residents in England and Wales, had implications for other class-action lawsuits filed in the U.K.

The case was originally filed by Richard Lloyd on behalf of the group “Google You Owe Us.” The group accused Google of bypassing Apple iPhone security by collecting personal information of users on the phone’s Safari web browser between August 2011 and February 2012. A U.K. court dismissed the case in October 2018, but it was later overturned by the UK Court of Appeal.

In a final decision in the case dating from last week, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Google, deciding that the representative claim against Google under the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA) should not be allowed to proceed. In reaching its decision, the Supreme Court considered the following points:

  • the statutory scheme of the DPA does not permit recovery of compensation for the mere “loss of control” of personal data and
  • the representative claim by Lloyd on behalf of the 4.4 million affected individuals should not be allowed to proceed, as Lloyd was unable to demonstrate that each of those individuals who he represented in the claim had suffered a violation of their rights under the DPA and material damage because of that violation.

“The claimants seeks damages,” Judge George Leggatt stated the decision, “for each individual member of the represented class without attempting to show that any wrongful use was made by Google of personal data relating to that individual or that the individual suffered any material damage or distress as a result of a breach.” Judge Leggatt also said, “Without proof of these matters, a claim for damages cannot succeed.”

The decision will be welcomed by controllers, as it limits the prospects of representative claims of the nature of that advanced by Lloyd and further provides reassurance that mere technical breaches of the UK GDPR that do not result in material damage to data subjects do not represent sufficient ground for compensation.

Google Play Store apps soon obliged to provide privacy notices

20. August 2021

On the Android Developers Blog, Google has announced further details for the upcoming new safety section in its Play Store. It aims at presenting the security of the offered apps in a simple way to give users a deeper insight into privacy and security practices of the developers. This should allow users to see what data the app may be collecting and why, even before the installation. In order to achieve this, apps in the Google Play Store will be required to publish the corresponding information in the safety section.

The new summary will be displayed to users on an app’s store listing page. It is intended to highlight details such as:

  • What type of data is collected and shared, e.g. location, contacts, name, email address, financial information,
  • How the data will be used, e.g. for app functionality or personalization,
  • Whether the data collection is optional or mandatory for the use of an app,
  • Security practices, e.g. data encryption,
  • Compliance with the family policy,
  • Validation from an independent source against a global security standard.

To support the safety section, policy changes are being made which should lead to more transparency to users. Thus, all developers will be required to provide a privacy notice. Previously, only apps that collected personal and sensitive user data had to do so. The innovation applies to all apps published on Google Play, including Google’s own apps.

Developers will be able to submit information to the Google Play Console for review in October. However, by April 2022 at the latest, the safety section must be approved for their apps. The reason for this is that the new section is scheduled to be rolled out and visible to users in Q1 2022.

Aside from sharing additional information for developers on how to get prepared, Google has also assured that more guidance will be released over the next few months.

Google Play Store to require new privacy information

25. May 2021

In a blog post published on May 6th, 2021, by Suzanne Frey, VP, Product, Android Security and Privacy, Google announced a new policy that will require developers to provide more privacy and security information about their apps. These details will be made available to users in a new “safety section” in the Google Play Store starting in 2022. The announcement comes a few months after Apple began displaying similar privacy information in their App Store.

The new “safety section” will require Android app developers to explain what kind of data is collected by their apps. For example, whether the app collects personal information, such as name, username or email and whether it collects information directly from the phone, such as approximate or exact location, contacts, media (photos, videos, audio files). Developers must also disclose how the app uses the data. For example, to improve app functionality and personalization. The section will also include information about security features, such as encryption and compliance with Google’s policy for apps aimed at children and families.

The new policy won’t be in effect for a few months in order to give developers enough time to implement the changes. Developers can begin declaring the new information in the fourth quarter of 2021. Users will be able to see the information on Google Play starting in the first quarter of 2022, and all new and existing apps will have to declare the information starting in the second quarter of 2022.

The changes seem designed to allow app developers to better explain to customers whether they can trust an app with their data, rather than working to make apps more data-efficient.

Google plans to stop the use of cookie tracking

15. March 2021

Google announces to stop the usage of third-party cookies in its browser Google Chrome and proclaim they will not implement other similar technologies that could track individuals while surfing on the web.

Cookies are small pieces of code used on almost every website. They are automatically downloaded when a user visits a website and from then on send data from the user back to the website operator. From this data, companies can create profiles of the user and personalize advertising based on the data collected. Originally, cookies were intended to give web browsers a “memory”. With cookies, online shops save shopping carts and users can stay logged in to online sites.

In a Blogpost published on March 3rd, 2021, David Temkin, Director of Product Management, Ads Privacy and Trust at Google, announced that the next update Google Chrome in April will allow cookie tracking to be turned of completely. With Google Chrome, only so-called “first-party cookies” of the respective website operator remain permitted. The decision will have lasting consequences, as Google Chrome has been the most widely used browser since 2012. The move comes after Google’s competitors Apple and Mozilla announced similar mechanisms for their Safari and Firefox browsers (please see our blog post). Temkin writes:

Keeping the internet open and accessible for everyone requires all of us to do more to protect privacy — and that means an end to not only third-party cookies, but also any technology used for tracking individual people as they browse the web.

Since the personalized advertising based on data, and thus the tracking of the data, is Google’s core business, Google will not stop either the data collection or the personalization of the advertising. Instead of individual profiles, Google will form cohorts of people with similar interests, to which advertising will be tailored. These cohorts are said to be broad enough to preserve the anonymity of individual users. This concept is called “Federated Learning of Cohorts” (FLoC). Google Ads FLoC based advertising is said to start in the second quarter of 2021.

Data will then be collected by the browser and stored locally and not by cookies. Every URL on a website and every content accessed can then be accessed by Google targeting algorithm. Algorithms on the end device are to calculate hash values from the browser history, for example, which enable the assignment to such a cohort. Google sends a selection of ads to the browser, which selects ads that match the cohort and shows them to the user.

While third-party cookies are gradually becoming obsolete, Google is replacing them with a system that Google can completely control itself. This will make it more difficult for competitors such as Facebook Ads in the future, as they will have to rely primarily on first-party data and on data obtained from cookies in smaller browsers.

Swedish court confirms Google’s violations of the GDPR

16. December 2020

The Administrative Court of Stockholm announced on November 23rd, 2020, that it had rejected Google LLC’s appeal against the decision of the Swedish Data Protection Authority (Datainspektionen) determining Google’s violations of the GDPR. Google as a search engine operator had not fulfilled its obligations regarding the right to be forgotten (RTBF). However, the court reduced the fine from a total of SEK 75 million (approx. € 7,344,000) to SEK 52 million (approx. € 5,091,000).

Background to the case was the Swedish DPA’s audit in 2017 concerning Google’s handling of requests on delisting, which means removal of certain results from a search engine. The DPA concluded the inspection by ordering Google to delist certain individuals’ names due to inaccuracy, irrelevance and superfluous information. In 2018 the DPA initiated a follow-up audit because of indications that Google had not fully complied with the previously issued order. It resulted in issuing an administrative fine of SEK 75 million in March 2020.

The DPA raised attention to the fact that the GDPR increases the obligations of data controllers and data processors as well as strengthens the rights of individuals, which include the right to have their search result delisted. Though, Google has not been fully complying with its obligations, as it has not properly removed two of the search result listings that the DPA had ordered to delete. In one case Google has done a too narrow interpretation of what web addresses to remove, in the other case Google has failed to remove it without undue delay.

Moreover, the DPA criticized Google’s procedure of managing delisting requests and found it to be undermining data subjects’ rights. Following the removal of a search result listing, Google notifies the website to which the link is directed. The delisting request form, directed to the data subject raising the request, states that information on the removed web addresses can be provided to the webmaster. This information has to be seen as misleading since the data subject is made to understand that its consent to the notification is required in order to process the request. Therefore, such practice might result in individuals refraining from exercising their right to request delisting, which violates Art. 5 (1) lit. a) GDPR. What’s more, in the opinion of the DPA the delisting notifications to the webmasters are not covered by legal obligations according to Art. 6 (1) lit. c), 17 (2) GDPR, nor legitimate interests pursuant to Art. 6 (1) lit. f) GDPR. Also, Google’s routine of regularly sending information to webmasters constitutes processing of personal data being incompatible with the purpose for which the data was originally collected. This practice infringes Art. 5 (1) lit. b), 6 (4) GDPR.

Google appealed the decision of the DPA. Though, the Swedish Administrative Court of Stockholm reaffirmed the DPA’s opinion and confirmed Google’s violations of the GDPR.

The court stated that the process concerning delisting requests must facilitate for the individual to exercise its rights. That means, any process that restricts the individuals’ rights may violate Art. 15 through 22 GDPR. The court also specified why the personal data had been processed beyond their original purpose. Since the notifications are only sent after Google has removed a search result, the purpose of the processing has already expired when the notification is sent. Thus, the notification cannot be considered effective in achieving the purpose specified by Google.

Google shall now delist specific search results and cease to inform webmasters of requests. Also, Google must adapt its data subject rights procedure within eight weeks after the court’s judgment has gained legal force.

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