France fines #Google and #Facebook 210 million euros

France’s National Commission for Information Technology and Civil Liberties (CNIL) on Thursday fined Google and Facebook 210 million euros for data collection breaches.

Alphabet Inc.’s Google was fined 150 million euros ($170 million) by the nation’s privacy watchdog while Meta Platforms Inc.’s Facebook was fined 60 million euros. Both were fined for the way they manage cookies.

CNIL, France’s data protection authority, on Thursday, issued the companies with a three-month ultimatum ''to provide internet users located in France with a means of refusing cookies as simple as the existing means of accepting them, in order to guarantee their freedom of consent.''

Failing to do so will come with the risk of an additional daily fine of 100,000 euros, CNIL said in the statement.