Google said late Thursday it stands by its "record of providing upfront information and clear controls, strong internal data governance, secure infrastructure and, above all, helpful products" after being fined by France's data watchdog.
Google said the fine "overlooks these efforts and doesn't account for the fact that French rules and regulatory guidance are uncertain and constantly evolving."
Amazon, which was also fined, disagreed with the France authority's findings. "We continuously update our privacy practices to ensure that we meet the evolving needs and expectations of customers and regulators and fully comply with all applicable laws in every country in which we operate," the company said in a statement.
France fined Google, Inc. and Amazon.com, Inc. a combined $163 million for wrongly inserting or dropping tracking cookies without the consent of users.
The fines were imposed by France's data privacy watchdog Thursday. It fined Google $121 million and Amazon $42 million for breaching the country's rules on advertising cookies. The data commission said the fines were justified by "the seriousness" of the breaches.
It gave Google and Amazon three months to change how they tell consumers the ways in which data is used and how they can reject cookies. If not, both companies face an additional fine of $ $121,095 for each day of delay.
The commission said the France websites of both companies didn't request consent from internet users about cookies - which are automatically saved on computers to facilitate advertising.
The commission found three Google consent violations related to dropping nonessential cookies. Amazon was found to have made two violations
The commission investigated the websites over the past year. It found tracking cookies were automatically dropped when a user visited the Google and Amazon websites - in violation of the country's Data Protection Act.
The commission found information about cookies provided was inadequate. It said a banner displayed by Google didn't provide specific information about tracking cookies already inserted.
The Amazon website displayed a banner informing visitors that they agreed to its use of cookies. The commission said this inadequate warning didn't comply with transparency or consent requirements because it wasn't clear to users Amazon was ad tracking. Users weren't given an opportunity to consent.
Under France and Europe laws, users must be informed before the cookies were inserted and asked for their consent. Sites that fail to ask for consent risk fines.
A ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union in October 2019 reasserted user consent must be obtained before storing or accessing nonessential cookies.
Analysts said the law on tracking-cookie consent had been clear for years and were puzzled by the violations.
The commission said changes made by Google and Amazon in September were insufficient.
