France Fined Google & Facebook Over Their Exploitative Use of Cookies
On December 31st, 2021, the country of France fined Google and Facebook over their exploitative use of cookies. In total, France fined Google 150 million euros, roughly 170 million U.S. dollars. In addition, France Facebook 60 million euros, roughly 68 million U.S. dollars.
CNIL Investigations Led France to Fine Google & Facebook
The incident stemmed from an investigation by the Commission Nationale de l'Informatique et des Libertés (CNIL). An independent regulatory body governed by France, CNIL serves “to protect personal data, support innovation, preserve individual liberties”. In many respects, CNIL operates as a digital watchdog, monitoring information and rights related to data protection.
Following intensive investigations into Google and Facebook, CNIL “noted that the websites facebook.com, google.fr and youtube.com do not make refusing cookies as easy as to accept them”. In essence, Facebook, Google Search, and YouTube allow users to seamlessly choose to accept cookies with the click of a button. However, users that wish to refuse all cookies must go through a multi-click process to do so.
In doing so, both Google and Facebook violated Article 82 of the French Data Protection Act. Through this article, websites, such as Google and Facebook, must make it clear that they are storing user information and that the user holds the right to oppose it. Additionally, these platforms only obtain the ability to do so after the user expressly granted their consent. By creating a lengthier process to reject consent over tracking cookies, CNIL found that Google and Facebook violated this law.
France Fined Google & Facebook Among Additional Restrictions
At the end of 2021, France publicly announced its findings after the CNIL investigated Google and Facebook. With the CNIL launching its investigation into Google in June 2021, it noticed that while Google features a simple “I accept” button when agreeing to its usage of cookies, this falls against several steps to reject its usage. Thus, CNIL “judged that making the refusal mechanism more complex actually discourages users from refusing cookies and encourages them to opt for the ease of the "I accept" button.” More so, the CNIL pointed out this issue to Google representatives back in February 2021, to no avail.
With Facebook, the CNIL commenced its investigation back in April 2021. Similar to Google, Facebook’s cookie acceptance policy weighed one-step acceptance against multi-step rejection. The CNIL saw that “Several clicks are required to refuse all cookies, as opposed to a single one to accept them. The CNIL also noted that the button allowing the user to refuse cookies is located at the bottom of the second window and is entitled "Accept cookies".” Comparable to Google’s violation of the French Data Protection Act, the CNIL found this setup to be discouraging users from refusing cookies.
As a result of the violations, France fined Google and Facebook over their exploitative usage of cookies. The CNIL publicly fined FACEBOOK IRELAND LIMITED 60 million euros, GOOGLE LLC 90 million euros, and GOOGLE IRELAND LIMITED 60 million euros. Beyond the fines, both companies now face a three-month period to resolve their respective issues. In short, the CNIL wants Google and Facebook to make it just as easy to reject cookies as it is to accept them. In the event that one of the companies chooses not to comply by the end of the three-month window, the CNIL may fine that company 100,000 euros each day until they comply.
Summary
After France fined Google and Facebook for their violations, French citizens stand to gain easier acceptance over which platforms they allow to store their personal information. Data privacy and internet security continue to be trending topics heading in 2022, after global concerns popped over the last few years. Following the events of December 31st, 2021, the CNIL helped to extend some of that control back to French citizens.
To launch your social media marketing strategy in an ethical manner, reach out to the digital marketing and advertising specialists at Rizzo Young Marketing LLC.