Following the Financial Times regarding the information presented to the Irish authority to investigate whether Google is using sensitive personal data, below you can find the relevant statement from a Google spokesperson.
“We do not serve personalized ads or send relevant offers to prospective advertisers without user consent. The Irish DPC – as Google’s primary DPA – and the UK ICO are already exploring the possibility of real-time offers to assess their compliance with GDPR. We welcome this work and offer our full cooperation.”
For those who don't know, a recent investigation into Google's personal data collection in the European Union has accused the search giant of sending your personal data to advertisers. The investigation claims that the company relays this information to advertisers using hidden websites , allowing it to circumvent EU privacy regulations .
The evidence was submitted to the Irish Data Protection Commission, Google’s main watchdog on behalf of the European Union. According to reports, Johnny Ryan, the chief policy officer, discovered that Google used a tracker containing web browsing information, location and other data that it sent to advertising companies through websites that “did not show content.”.
The process Google may have followed is “cookie matching” or “cookie syncing,” an advertising industry practice for matching ads across multiple websites based on a user’s browsing history . A Google developer page on cookie matching explains the process and the privacy principles the search engine follows, such as not being able to collect information from multiple companies.
The Data Protection Commission launched an investigation into Google's practices in May after receiving a complaint from Brave that Google had allegedly violated the EU's data protection regulation.
