Fine
France fines Free Mobile €42 million over 2024 data breach incident
The French data protection authority (CNIL) has imposed cumulative fines of €42 million on Free Mobile and its parent company, Free, for inadequate protection of customer data against cyber threats. The company is the second-largest internet service provider in France and suffered a data breach in October 2024, exposing information of nearly 23 million mobile and […]
California bans data broker reselling health data of millions
The California Privacy Protection Agency (CalPrivacy) has taken action against the Datamasters marketing firm that sold the health and personal data of millions of users without being registered as a data broker. As per the California Delete Act, businesses buying and selling information about consumers are required to register their data brokerage activity by January 31st […]
Italy fines Apple $116 million over App Store privacy policy issues
Italy’s competition authority (AGCM) has fined Apple €98.6 million ($116 million) for using the App Tracking Transparency (ATT) privacy framework to abuse its dominant market position in mobile app advertising. ATT requires developers to request consent to collect their data for targeted advertising before tracking them across websites, apps, and services owned by other companies. Apple […]
UK fines LastPass over 2022 data breach impacting 1.6 million users
The UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) fined the LastPass password management firm £1.2 million for failing to implement security measures that allowed an attacker to steal personal information and encrypted password vaults belonging to up to 1.6 million UK users in a 2022 breach. According to the ICO, the incident stemmed from two interconnected breaches […]
EU fines X $140 million over deceptive blue checkmarks
The European Commission has fined X €120 million ($140 million) for violating transparency obligations under the Digital Services Act (DSA). This is the first non-compliance ruling under the DSA, a set of rules adopted in 2022 that requires platforms to remove harmful content and protect users across the European Union. The fine was issued following a two-year […]
Comcast to pay $1.5M fine for vendor breach affecting 270K customers
Comcast will pay a $1.5 million fine to settle a Federal Communications Commission investigation into a February 2024 vendor data breach that exposed the personal information of nearly 275,000 customers. The breach occurred in February 2024, when attackers hacked into the systems of Financial Business and Consumer Solutions (FBCS), a debt collector Comcast had stopped using two […]
Imgur blocks UK users after data watchdog signals possible fine
People in the United Kingdom are no longer able to access content hosted on the Imgur, a popular media sharing site, after a UK data watchdog warned it may impose a monetary penalty on the parent company, MediaLab. Visitors to the site are now shown a message stating, “Content not available in your region,” with a […]
EU fines Google $3.5 billion for anti-competitive ad practices
The European Commission has fined Google €2.95 billion ($3.5 billion) for abusing its dominance in the digital advertising technology market and favoring its adtech services over those of its competitors. Google was also ordered by the EU’s top antitrust regulator to stop anti-competitive and “self-preferencing” practices and take measures to mitigate future conflicts of interest […]
France slaps Google with €325M fine for violating cookie regulations
The French data protection authority has fined Google €325 million ($378 million) for violating cookie regulations and displaying ads between Gmail users’ emails without their consent. During several investigations between 2022 and 2023, the National Commission on Informatics and Liberty (CNIL) found that Google’s Gmail email service displayed advertisements in the “Promotions” and “Social” tabs without the […]
Germany fines Vodafone $51 million for privacy, security breaches
The German data protection authority (BfDI) has fined Vodafone GmbH, the telecommunications company’s German subsidiary, €45 million ($51.4 million) for privacy and security violations. “Due to malicious employees in partner agencies who broker contracts to customers on behalf of Vodafone, there had been fraud cases due to fictitious contracts or contract changes at the expense of […]