Last Update: July 04, 2023, 01:15 AM IST
Noyob claimed that European data was transferred to the United States as a result of the companies’ use of Google Analytics for web statistics.
Sweden’s privacy protection agency, IMY, said it had investigated the companies’ use of Google Analytics following a complaint from a data privacy group.
Sweden ordered four companies on Monday to stop using Google tools that measure and analyze web traffic because doing so transfers personal data to the United States, fining one company more than $1.1 million Was applied.
Sweden’s privacy protection agency, IMY, said it was investigating the companies’ use of Google Analytics following a complaint from Austrian data privacy group noyb (None of Your Business), which has filed dozens of complaints against Google across Europe .
Noyb claimed that the companies’ use of Google Analytics for web statistics resulted in the transfer of European data to the United States in violation of the EU’s data protection regulation, the GDPR.
The GDPR only allows the transfer of data to third countries if the European Commission has determined that they provide at least the same privacy protections as the EU, and a 2020 EU Court of Justice decision has allowed EU-US data transfer deals. has been cancelled. scarce.
IMY said it considers the data sent by the four companies to Google Analytics in the United States to be personal data and that “the technical security measures the companies have put in place are not sufficient to ensure the level of security that essentially In line with that guarantee within the European Union…”
It fined telecommunications company Tele2 12 million kroner and online marketplace CDoN 300,000 kroner.
Grocery store chain Coop and Dagens Industrie newspaper had taken more measures to protect the data being transferred and were not fined.
Tele2 voluntarily stopped using Google Analytics, and IMY ordered other companies to stop using it.
Sandra Arvidsson, legal counsel for the IMY who led the investigation, said the agency’s rulings “clarify what requirements on technical safeguards and other measures are in place when transferring personal data to a third country, in this case the United States.” are kept”.
Niobe welcomed IMY’s decision.
“While several other European authorities (such as Austria, France and Italy) have already found that the use of Google Analytics violates the GDPR, this is the first financial penalty imposed on companies for using Google Analytics,” it said in a statement. There’s a fine.”
In late May, the European Commission said it hoped to have a new legal framework for data transfers between the EU and the United States by the end of the summer.
The RGPD, in force since 2018, could impose fines of up to 20 million euros, or four per cent of a company’s global revenue.
(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – AFP,
