French privacy watchdog fines Microsoft’s Irish subsidiary €60 million ($63.88 million) for dropping advertising cookies on users’ computers without their explicit consent in violation of EU data protection law was imposed.
The Commission nationale de l’informatique et des libertés (CNIL) noted that users visiting the homepage of the Bing search engine do not have “mechanisms to refuse cookies as easily as they accept them.”
Following complaints received in February 2020, the agency conducted an online audit between September 2020 and May 2021 and found that ads were served without prior user permission where appropriate. said the tech giant stored cookies to combat ad fraud. By law.
In addition to the fine, Microsoft was ordered to change its cookie usage within three months. Failure to do so risks an additional fine of EUR 60,000 per day for non-compliance after the expiration of the period.
In a statement shared with The Wall Street Journal, the Windows makers said they have already made changes to include the option to decline advertising cookies. However, it expressed concern about asking for user consent to deliver his cookie for ad fraud detection, saying that consent should not be sought from anyone “with the intent to deceive others.”
The CNIL fines come as part of a broader crackdown on big tech companies and follow similar fines issued against Google parent companies Alphabet and Meta Platforms in January this year.
Last month, regulators also fined electricity companies EDF and Discord, respectively, for using weak encryption algorithms to protect passwords and not complying with GDPR data retention policies. was imposed.
