French privacy watchdog fines Microsoft’s Irish subsidiary €60 million ($63.88 million) for dropping advertising cookies on users’ computers without their explicit consent in violation of EU data protection law was imposed.
National Freedom of Information Commission (CNIL) I got it Users who visited the home page of the Bing search engine did not have a “mechanism to reject cookies as easily as they accept them.”
The agency conducted an online audit between September 2020 and May 2021 following complaints received in February 2020. said The tech giant stored cookies for the purpose of serving ads and fighting ad fraud without prior user permission, as required by law.
In addition to the fine, Microsoft was ordered to change its cookie usage within three months. Failure to do so risks an additional fine of EUR 60,000 per day for non-compliance after the expiration of the period.
In a statement shared with The Wall Street Journal, Windows makers Said A change has already been made to include the option to decline advertising cookies. However, he expressed concern that his cookie for ad fraud detection should not require consent from people “trying to deceive others.”
The CNIL fines come as part of a broader crackdown on big tech companies and follow similar fines issued against Google parent companies Alphabet and Meta Platforms in January this year.
Last month, regulators also fined power companies EDF and Discord for using weak encryption algorithms to protect passwords and failing to comply with regulations. GDPR respective data retention policies.
