Google fined €403M by the Irish DPC over location data
€403M
≈ $463M at the time
Irish Data Protection Commission
Ireland / EU · 2026
Status: Not yet final
What happened
The Irish DPC found that Google Ireland processed users' location data through Web & App Activity, Location History and Location Accuracy in breach of the GDPR between 25 May 2018 and 4 February 2020. The findings cover lawfulness and fairness, accountability, transparency, and keeping location data longer than necessary.
How it affected users
People were not given a clear picture of how three overlapping Google settings collected and used their location, which limited their control over it. The DPC said that keeping the data longer than necessary made that loss of control worse.
Status timeline
Sep 21, 2026
Final decision announced: fines totalling €403M and an order to bring processing into compliance within six months. The full decision is to be published later.
Sep 21, 2026
The DPC's fines register lists the fine as not confirmed; DPC fines are not payable until confirmed by a court.
Sources
- Irish DPC: Data Protection Commission fines Google €403 million following inquiry into Google's processing of location dataregulator
- Irish DPC fines register: status of each DPC fineregulator
- BleepingComputer: Google fined $463 million over location data privacy violationsnews
Last verified 2026-10-15. Spotted an error? Report a correction.
Cite this entry
Deepak Gupta, "Google fined €403M by the Irish DPC over location data," Tech Fines Directory, guptadeepak.com, 2026-09-21. https://guptadeepak.com/tech-fines/violation/google-ireland-location-2026/