Its just been a few hours when European Union’s (EU) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into effect and now a news has surfaced that Google and Facebook have been hit with privacy complaints that could carry fines of up to $9.3 billion in total.
Austrian privacy-advocacy group Noyb.eu has said that with regard to privacy, Facebook, Google, and Facebook-owned Instagram and WhatsApp are forcing people to adopt a “take it or leave it” approach which eventually demands them to give in to platform’s intrusive terms of service.
The group has said in its statement,
Tonnes of ‘consent boxes’ popped up online or in applications, often combined with a threat, that the service can no longer be used if user (s) do not consent.
Moreover, It is asking regulators in Germany, Austria, France and Belgium to fine companies up to a maximum of four percent of their annual revenue that GDPR legislations allow.
If this comes into effect, this would mean $4.88 billion fine for Google parent company Alphabet and $1.63 billion for each of Facebook and its owned services Instagram and WhatsApp, the CNET report has stated.
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), that came in full effect from Friday aims to give internet users a better control of how companies use their personal data. Moreover, tech companies will have to comply with a rigid protocol on how they store personal users’ data and how they share it with third parties.