The European Union has introduced some of the world’s strictest online privacy rules. The “Right to be Forgotten” on Google — not yet available in the U.S. — is a notable example.
Now, according to The New York Times, the French data protection authority has fined Google 50 million euros for not properly disclosing to users how data is collected across its services. That includes its search engine, Google Maps and YouTube and other platforms. (If you’ve seen personalized advertisements following you around when you are using the internet, that is where they originate. Tech companies make massive profits from collecting and selling your data to marketers.)
Organizations like Facebook and Google make strenuous efforts to keep such laws from entering the U.S. Nonetheless, Europeans who have spearheaded such efforts are laying the groundwork here to begin bringing more protective laws to U.S. consumers.
We support bringing the “Right to be Forgotten” to America…along with better privacy laws. These are articles we have published about the issues:
Protecting the Privacy of High Net Worth Families
Right2Remove: Bringing the “Right to be Forgotten” to America
Electronic Frontier Foundation Primer Helps Protect Your Online Privacy
How Google’s Content Removal Request Process Works
For more insight, read this Times’ article: What the G.D.P.R., Europe’s Tough New Data Law, Means for You.