Google and Amazon have both been hit with substantial fines from the French data-protection regulator, CNIL, for invading users’ privacy.
On Thursday, the watchdog fined Google €100 million ($121 million)—double the penalty it levied on the firm last year over Android privacy violations—and Amazon €35 million. Crucially, it has also ordered them to start clearly telling users why they track them.
In both cases, CNIL said the companies had illegally deposited tracking cookies in users’ browsers without their prior consent, while failing to clearly disclose to the users it was leaving the cookies in order to show them personalized ads.
