A group of European consumer watchdogs has used the EU’s data protection framework, GDPR, to launch a privacy complaint against Google. The complaint, filed with the EU Commission in Brussels on Wednesday, is aimed at Google over its use of personal information collected from users for advertising purposes. These are part of all Google accounts and the watchdogs said it could be difficult to deactivate them. The consumer organizations are making the complaint under the EU’s new data protection framework, GDPR, which regulators can use to levy major fines for compliance breaches — of up to 4 percent of a company’s global annual turnover. The Norwegian Consumer Council specifically criticised the use of accessed location and search information for advertisement targeting. Google has said it will study the complaint "to see if there are things we can take on board".
A group of European consumer watchdogs has used the EU’s data protection framework, GDPR, to launch a privacy complaint against Google. The complaint, filed with the EU Commission in Brussels on Wednesday, is aimed at Google over its use of personal information collected from users for advertising purposes. These are part of all Google accounts and the watchdogs said it could be difficult to deactivate them. The Norwegian Consumer Council specifically criticised the use of accessed location and search information for advertisement targeting. Google has said it will study the complaint "to see if there are things we can take on board".