Google and Amazon fined because of ad-tracking cookie

Google has been fined £91m in France because they broke France’s rules on online advertising trackers, cookies. The fine was issued by the French data privacy watchdog CNIL. Amazon was also fined 35 million euros for breaking rules. They are accused of not seeking website visitors’ consent before advertising cookies were saved on their devices. CNIL also stated that Google and Amazon failed to provide clear info about how the trackers would be used and how online visitors can refuse the cookies. They are given three months to change and make improvements. Amazon said it disagreed with the CNIL decision; stating that they did follow the laws in every country. On the other hand, Google came up with some ways to change, such as stopping advertisers from using cookies to track users movements online when using Chrome.

source: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-55259602

5 thoughts on “Google and Amazon fined because of ad-tracking cookie

  1. Reading this post basically confirmed my beliefs on companies like Amazon and Google. I always found it weird when I would talk about something or look it up and the next day an advertisement related to the topic appears on my social media feed. A lot of websites ask you to enable cookies and these cookies sometimes track your activity on the internet. It is ironic that in the article I have attached below Google explains how they want to “phase out” cookies from tracking you and create a “Privacy Sandbox”. Less than a year later, they are fined for allowing cookies to track internet users. I hope that in the future there still is a way to maintain some form of privacy on the internet.

    Source:
    https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/cookies-track-you-across-internet-google-wants-phase-them-out-n1115156

  2. I found this topic very relative and interesting to me. I would like to point out how big data has been in close association with our daily lives. Not just Google and Amazon have been doing the ad-tracking in our website cookies, YouTube has been doing it for a long time. Recall the time when we look up something which we need for ourselves, like some skill certificate, programs, or even food groceries; the 15-second ads will be somewhat related towards your searching engine results. So, it’s tough to keep track of what you have been searched for, but it is easy that set up the website more protective and make our website cookies as clean as possible.

    https://www.qubole.com/blog/big-data-advertising-case-study/
    https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/oct/21/how-to-disable-google-ad-tracking-gmail-youtube-browser-history

  3. Ad-tracking cookies are an example of privacy concerns that occur in our digital lifestyle. Most people don’t realize the amount of information being collected as they use their digital devices. The ability to target information to consumers based on their digital activities may not be harmful, but it may lead the way to more harmful activities. The ability to push items or ideas, as well as censor items or ideas would have a great effect on the population. Given the degree of dependence on internet activities, the protection of people’s fundamental privacy is very important.
    https://www.kaspersky.com/resource-center/definitions/cookies

  4. I completely agree with jmc8305 because if they were not caught doing this then they would still be doing this. I believe in the protection and privacy of our information more now than ever, and it should be important for Google and Amazon to inform their users about the cookies they are collecting. I do not know if it is required in the US or not, but companies, especially big companies including Google and Amazon, should be required to inform their users on the cookies that are being collected as well as their uses. I see these cookie notifications on some website but not the majority, so this makes me question what kind of information do some companies collect while you are on their website. It is nice to see Google create some changes that works with CNIL, but we will see what changes, if any, Amazon makes from these lawsuits.

  5. This kind of topic really brings into question what other things these technology companies are doing behind the screens that are illegal in selling our data to companies so that they can run ads on their websites. I am curious to see what actually happens in the case with Amazon because this seems like something that they would definitely like to take advantage of, but I can also see there is a misunderstanding in the way that Amazon was working for these users in question who had their cookies saved and sent out to others. The argument made in recent statements by Google is more on the lines that the times are changing and that they would be willing to review with CNIL on the issues with Google Chrome in France. Basically, showing understanding that they were going against the internet laws of the country and had been caught.

    Link:https://techcrunch.com/2020/12/10/france-fines-google-120m-and-amazon-42m-for-dropping-tracking-cookies-without-consent/

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