Google faces Irish privacy probe of data processing for ads

Google is at risk of another hefty privacy fine under the European Union’s strict data protection rules after Irish regulators opened a probe of possible violations into how the search giant processes users’ data in advertising transactions.

“The purpose of the inquiry is to establish whether processing of personal data carried out at each stage of an advertising transaction” is in line with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation, the Irish Data Protection Commission said Wednesday in a statement. The probe focuses on Google’s online Ad Exchange.

The EU’s so-called GDPR took effect a year ago, empowering the bloc’s previously toothless privacy authorities to levy fines of as much as 4% of a company’s annual sales for the most serious violations. Google was earlier this year slapped with a 50 million-euro ($55.8 million) privacy fine by the French data regulator for violating the EU law.