Google fined €403 million over location tracking — for settings it ran six years ago
Ireland's Data Protection Commission fined Google €403 million over how it handled location data from 2018 to 2020. What Google did, and what changes now.
Stated by the maker, publisher, or platform holder.
Ireland's Data Protection Commission has fined Google €403 million, about $463 million, over how it processed people's location data. The DPC is Google's lead privacy regulator in the EU, because Google's European headquarters is in Dublin.
The conduct it's being fined for happened between 2018 and 2020. The penalty arrived last week.
What's confirmed
Google's response
Google says these were "historical policies that have since been updated." It points to changes since: controls to auto-delete account data on a schedule you choose, Maps Timeline data now stored on your device and deleted after three months by default, and precise device location no longer saved in Web & App Activity.
The DPC hasn't yet published its full decision.
Why it matters now
The practical change for most people is small, because Google had already changed the settings in question. The bigger point is the delay. Long gaps between conduct and penalty are common in GDPR cases against big tech, and they mean fines land on companies for products that no longer work the way they're being fined for.
It's still worth checking your own settings. On Android or in your Google account, look at Web & App Activity and Timeline. Both can be paused, and both have auto-delete options.
The bigger pattern
Location data is among the most sensitive data a phone produces: where you sleep, where you work, who you visit. It's why regulators keep coming back to it, and why this month's other privacy stories, from the Gyazo breach to AI agents reaching into systems they weren't meant to touch, keep landing on the same question: who has your data, and did you actually agree to it.