France fines Google and Shein millions for violating user consent

BarcelonaIncreased pressure on large technology multinationals. France has fined Google 325 million euros for displaying ads in Gmail users' emails without their consent and for using cookies. (cookies in English, the small text files that are used to track you when you use a website) without valid consent, and has done the same with the platform ofultra fast fashion Shein, who has also been fined 150 million for imposing these cookies without the approval of Internet users and for not informing them correctly.

In a statement, the National Commission for Information Technology and Civil Liberties (CNIL) has highlighted that these sanctions are part of the global strategy that it has applied for more than five years on cookies, which are very often used to send advertising selectively to visitors of a website. In the case of Google, the French agency justifies the sanction, firstly, because users of the Gmail messaging application see tabs of promotions and social networks with ads displayed in the form of messages. According to the CNIL, prior consent should be requested to display such advertising.

Furthermore, France also criticizes the American internet giant for encouraging users to choose personalized ads instead of more generic ones when they create a Gmail account, and for not clearly informing them that its services are subject to cookies. advertising. That is, the consent obtained from the Internet user is invalid. In addition to the €325 million fine, Google has been given six months to correct this situation; if it fails to do so, it will have to pay €100,000 for each day of delay. The sum of the fines takes into account the "very high" number of people who use these services, as the CNIL has estimated that there are more than 74 million accounts belonging to users residing in France, and 53 million of them have seen advertising on the aforementioned tabs.

The Cookie Trap

In the case of Shein, the French digital authority considers that the fashion platform breached various obligations when applying certain cookies. without the consent of internet users. Specifically, it considers that it did not respect their choices because it did not inform them properly, a practice the agency has already sanctioned on numerous occasions. Thus, the CNIL has found that cookies were stored on the devices used to access the Shein website. from the moment the connection was made, even before users could choose which ones to accept and which ones to reject.

The agency emphasizes the "massive nature" of this practice, as Shein's website receives 12 million visits per month from people living in France. However, given that the Chinese company has modified its platform, the regulator did not consider it necessary to impose additional measures to correct these practices.