Google faces privacy complaint for tracking users in EU

Google faces a data-protection complaint from Austrian privacy activist Max Schrems amid concerns it unlawfully monitors users and passes on the “tracking ID” to advertisers.

Schrems’s campaign group Noyb on Wednesday filed a complaint with the Austrian data protection authority, accusing Google of tracking users of Android phones through a unique ID that “allows Google and countless third-parties to” monitor users.

The European Union’s strict data protection rules, in force since May 2018, require people’s consent before being tracked, the group said in a statement. Data regulators have the powers to levy fines of as much as 4 per cent of a company’s global annual sales for serious violations.