Europe attempts to rein in Google

Google was hit with a $57 million fine [over how they address privacy practices], the largest yet leveled under a sweeping new European data law, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The fine is meager compared to Google’s bottom line, but the law allows regulators to ramp up penalties up to 4 percent of their annual global revenue. For Google’s parent company Alphabet, that could amount to a $4 billion hit. For Google and its Silicon Valley peers, the fine is being seen as a wake-up call that Europe is ready to challenge them on their data practices. And in the U.S., it’s raising pressure on American regulators to follow suit and toughen their oversight of tech giants.

[...]

In a statement, a spokesperson for Google said it was reviewing the decision to “determine our next steps.”

[...]

“It’s hard to say how much you have to fine Google to hurt them, but it’s stronger than anything we’ve seen here in the U.S.,” Fitzgerald told The Hill. “I think U.S. consumers should ask why the FTC [Federal Trade Commission] is failing to act against these tech companies.”

[...]

“Almost every democratic country in the world has an authority focused on data protection so the U.S. is kind of alone in that regard,” Fitzgerald said.

  The Hill

The days of Edward Snowden seem far behind us.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.