Lawmakers argue that repeated privacy lapses can be a sign that a company -- Facebook is often cited as a prime example -- has let product quality and customer service slip.
Most of the data was collected by a company called People Data Labs, which provides work emails and social media account details for what the company claims is a billion and a half people.
“We need strong enforcement, because only then will the right to control our data become a reality in people’s lives,” Vestager told a privacy conference in Brussels. “Only then can we start to restore Europeans’ trust in the digital world.”
The EU’s request could add a new strand to the antitrust probe it opened in July that’s looking into how Amazon’s retail arm uses data gathered on marketplace merchants to gain an advantage.
Google will no longer divulge information to participants in its ad auction about the type of content on a website or page where an ad could appear, the Alphabet Inc. company said in a blog post Thursday.
Google’s top health and cloud executives said the company isn’t misusing health data from one of the biggest U.S. health-care providers, pushing back against news reports that have triggered criticism from lawmakers and prompted a federal inquiry.
The documents portray company executives plotting how to convince the public they were serious about improving privacy protections even while their real goal was to snuff out competition.
The state says it demanded information from the social media giant in June for an investigation launched last year and that the company’s response has been “patently deficient.”
