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MVM
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Google risks mega-fine in EU over location stalking

»www.theregister.co.uk/20 ··· talking/
quote:
AP's investigation this week described how Google continues to collect an individual's location markers, even when users believe they've disabled the data collection. That's not news to Register readers, as we have regularly pointed this out - but it has shocked the rest of the media and the public. Google has a strong historic interest in location data, being dubbed an "obsessive stalker". AP found that:

Location tracking continues when the user thinks they have disabled it. That's because:
User settings governing location markers are in different places
Location tracking can be "Paused", but not permanently disabled
Location tracking continues in Maps, Search and other Google applications regardless of the "Location History" setting.
Warnings provided to both iOS and Android users are misleading

While other companies collect location data, and Apple certainly does, it only uses it for internal purposes, and that doesn't entail "sharing" - whereas Google is creating a highly personal virtual profile of you accessible to advertisers. And that is where Google is vulnerable under the GDPR, Serena Tierney, a partner at VWV law firm and a data protection and privacy specialist, told us.

For Tierney, Google is actually vulnerable on two areas, based on the user information AP cited. Firstly, the GDPR requires data collection to be for "specified, explicit and legitimate purposes".

Secondly, there's what the GDPR calls the "data minimisation principle": that the personal data collected must be "adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary in relation to the purposes for which they are processed".


Google was defiant in a canned statement sent to The Register this week that "Location History" is "entirely opt in", adding that: "We make sure Location History users know that when they disable the product, we continue to use location to improve the Google experience when they do things like perform a Google search or use Google for driving directions."
Popped me some popcorn and chilling me some beer! Leeeet's Get Rrrreeady Tooo RRRRRRRumble! Round 1 : GDPR v Google!

Regards

StuartMW
Premium Member
join:2000-08-06

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StuartMW

Premium Member

quote:
While other companies collect location data, and Apple certainly does, it only uses it for internal purposes...
Well if I owned/used an iPhone I'd feel a LOT better. /sarcasm
InternetJeff
I'm your huckleberry.
join:2001-09-25
.

2 recommendations

InternetJeff to HELLFIRE

Member

to HELLFIRE
Root your devices.

Disable offending apps.

Revoke unneeded permissions.

Block ads and trackers.

StuartMW
Premium Member
join:2000-08-06

3 recommendations

StuartMW to HELLFIRE

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to HELLFIRE
quote:
...we [Google] continue to use location to improve the Google experience earnings...
Google corporate speak ==> truth.
StuartMW

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StuartMW to HELLFIRE

Premium Member

to HELLFIRE
Another source

»www.techcentral.ie/googl ··· st-gdpr/
quote:
This is the era of Big Data, ad targeting, government surveillance, facial recognition technology, the right to be forgotten and the right to see/delete any information you may have created that benefits a company. Europe is the only market where Google is likely to be punished for this transgression that affects every iOS and Android-based device on the planet. Anything less than the full force of regulation will be seen as a sign of weakness that will embolden Facebook/Amazon/Google/Twitter etc to continue with their lax attitude to data protection, knowing that meagre fines and a promise ‘to do better’ will suffice.
StuartMW

StuartMW to HELLFIRE

Premium Member

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OTOH Google may make up any fines/lost business by tracking/surveilling Chinese citizens on behalf of the [Communist] Chinese govt.

»Google Plans to Launch Censored Search Engine in China

One wonders if that is the plan.

Davesnothere
Change is NOT Necessarily Progress
Premium Member
join:2009-06-15
Canada

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Davesnothere to StuartMW

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to StuartMW
said by StuartMW:

....Anything less than the full force of regulation will be seen as a sign of weakness that will embolden Facebook/Amazon/Google/Twitter etc to continue with....


....doing anything that they please, period.
Kearnstd
Space Elf
Premium Member
join:2002-01-22
Mullica Hill, NJ

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to StuartMW
The moment I hear a company state something will improve "The Customer Experience" improve the "(Brandname here) Experience" I automatically know that if they had any more spin they would be selling Gravitrons to the county fair.