France fines Microsoft €60 million over cookies
France's privacy watchdog has fined US tech giant Microsoft €60 million for foisting advertising cookies on users.
In the largest fine imposed in 2022, the National Commission for Technology and Freedoms (CNIL) said Microsoft's search engine Bing had not set up a system allowing users to refuse cookies as simply as accepting them.
The French regulator said that after investigations it found that "when users visited this site, cookies were deposited on their terminal without their consent, while these cookies were used, among others, for advertising purposes."
It also "observed that there was no button allowing to refuse the deposit of cookies as easily as accepting it."
The CNIL said the fine was justified in part because of the profits the company made from advertising profits indirectly generated from the data collected via cookies - tiny data files that track online browsing.
The company has been given three months to rectify the issue, with a potential further penalty of 60,000 euros per day overdue.
Last year the CNIL said it would carry out a year of checks against sites not following the rules on using web cookies.
Google and Facebook were sanctioned last year by the CNI with fines of €150 million and €60 million respectively for similar breaches.
The two firms also face scrutiny over their practice of sending the personal data of EU residents to servers in the United States.
And tech giants continue to face a slew of cases across Europe.
Earlier this month, Europe's data watchdog imposed binding decisions concerning the treatment of personal data by Meta, the owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.
The European Data Protection Supervisor said in a statement that the rulings concerned Meta's use of data for targeted advertising, but did not give details of its ruling or recommended fines.
The latest case follows complaints by privacy campaigning group Noyb that Meta's three apps fail to meet Europe's strict rules on data protection.
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In the largest fine imposed in 2022, the National Commission for Technology and Freedoms (CNIL) said Microsoft's search engine Bing had not set up a system allowing users to refuse cookies as simply as accepting them.
The French regulator said that after investigations it found that "when users visited this site, cookies were deposited on their terminal without their consent, while these cookies were used, among others, for advertising purposes."
It also "observed that there was no button allowing to refuse the deposit of cookies as easily as accepting it."
The CNIL said the fine was justified in part because of the profits the company made from advertising profits indirectly generated from the data collected via cookies - tiny data files that track online browsing.
The company has been given three months to rectify the issue, with a potential further penalty of 60,000 euros per day overdue.
Last year the CNIL said it would carry out a year of checks against sites not following the rules on using web cookies.
Google and Facebook were sanctioned last year by the CNI with fines of €150 million and €60 million respectively for similar breaches.
And tech giants continue to face a slew of cases across Europe.
Earlier this month, Europe's data watchdog imposed binding decisions concerning the treatment of personal data by Meta, the owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.
The European Data Protection Supervisor said in a statement that the rulings concerned Meta's use of data for targeted advertising, but did not give details of its ruling or recommended fines.
The latest case follows complaints by privacy campaigning group Noyb that Meta's three apps fail to meet Europe's strict rules on data protection.
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