Google faces data ‘stalking’ probe from Data Protection Commissioner
Google could be probed by the Data Protection Commissioner over location “stalking” after it emerged the tech giant continues to share information with advertisers.
The Data Protection Commissioner has been asked to conduct a “serious investigation” into the claim by the chair of the Oireachtas communications committee.
Committee chair Hildegarde Naughton said Google officials will be asked to appear before it during its early consideration of the Digital Safety Commissioner Bill.
The committee has already agreed social media and online platforms such as Google and Facebook cannot be trusted to self-regulate and will now prioritise a Sinn Féin bill to appoint a digital safety commissioner.
Communications Minister Denis Naughten had promised the establishment of such a commissioner before year-end but the Government rowed back on its plan and instead opted for self-regulation.
It was revealed this week that several Google apps and websites store user location even if users have turned off their location history.
Meantime, the online platform has changed its help page to clarify that the company still tracks a user’s platform even if the location settings are switched off.
It acknowledged “some location data may be saved” as part of a person’s activity on other services such as Google search or Google Maps.
The Google information page had previously stated that “with location history off, the places you go are no longer stored”.
Ms Naughton said: “I have serious concerns regarding the compliance of the recently revealed practice of location stalking with European General Data Protection Regulations. GDPR mandates that data — and an individual’s location is certainly data — can only be shared with a legitimate purpose and proper consent.
“Given recent revelations that disabling location settings does not prevent your location being shared with Google and advertisers, it is not clear to me how Google is in compliance with GDPR principles of consent.
European citizens have a right to privacy and I am determined to ensure it is protected.
“I have written to the Data Protection Commissioner to ask for a serious investigation into this matter, and will be calling on Google to appear before the committee,” she said.
Meanwhile, more than 1,000 Google staff have signed a letter protesting against the company’s secretive plan to build a search engine that would comply with Chinese censorship.
The letter calls on executives to review ethics and transparency at the company.
It says employees lack the information required “to make ethically informed decisions about our work” and complains that most employees only found out about the project — nicknamed Dragonfly — through media reports.
The letter is similar to one which thousands of employees had signed to protest against Project Maven, a US military contract that Google decided in June not to renew.
