Against Facebook and Google: Penalties worth millions for forced cookies

Against Facebook and Google
Multi-million dollar penalties for compulsory cookies

Each time a website is accessed, cookies are used to store user data. It can be more difficult to reject them than to accept them. A French authority is now imposing fines in the millions for the data giants Facebook and Google.

France’s data protection authority has fined Google and Facebook millions. On their pages, users would not have been able to reject cookies as easily as they could accept, according to the statement of the Commission Nat Informatique et Liberté (CNIL). Two Google subsidiaries should therefore pay a fine of 150 million euros together. On Facebook it is 60 million euros.

Cookies are small data sets that are stored on the device when you visit a website. It makes a lot of things easier, but personal information can also be transmitted transparently to advertisers. The CNIL complained that on google.fr, facebook.com and youtube.com cookies could be accepted with just one click, but several clicks would be necessary to reject them. This affects the freedom of consent and violates French law.

The platform operators now have three months to adjust their handling in France. For each day of delay, 100,000 euros would be due. A spokeswoman for the Facebook parent company Meta said they were looking at the authority’s decision. The own cookie settings would give people more control over their data. These attitudes will be further developed and improved. Google announced that it is aware of its responsibility to people’s trust and is committed to further changes.

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