Google, Facebook Slapped With French Privacy Fines Over Cookies

Alphabet's Google was slapped with a record French fine of 150 million euros ($170 million) by the nation's privacy watchdog, together with a 60 million-euro fine for Meta Platforms' Facebook, over the way the companies manage cookies. From a report: CNIL, France's data protection authority, on Thursday issued the companies with a three-month ultimatum "to provide internet users located in France with a means of refusing cookies as simple as the existing means of accepting them, in order to guarantee their freedom of consent." Failing to do so will come with the risk of an additional daily fine of 100,000 euros, CNIL said in the statement. The latest penalties follow probes by the watchdog looking at companies' compliance with new rules on cookies, which are tracking devices that are placed on people's computers. The watchdog in 2020 fined Google 100 million euros and online shopping giant Amazon.com Inc. 35 million euros for placing such cookies on people's computers without their consent.

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