France fines Yahoo €10m for cookie abuse

The French data protection authority has announced that it has fined Yahoo (an internet portal offering various services including search engine and e-mail) €10 million for failing to respect users' refusal to use cookies " of tracking on the Internet or that she suggested to them that if they did, they would lose access to their email accounts, AFP reported.
The $10.9 million fine imposed in December came after the Commission for Consumer Protection (CNIL) received complaints and conducted investigations in October 2020 and June 2021.
It found that visitors to Yahoo.com's main site who clicked the "decline cookies" button still ended up with roughly 20 digital tracking devices added for advertising purposes.
In addition, Yahoo Mail users who attempted to opt out of cookies were warned that they would no longer be able to access Messages or other Yahoo services.
"To determine the amount of the fine, the commission took into account the fact that the company did not respect the choice of Internet users regarding cookies and that it introduced measures to dissuade them from withdrawing their consent to the deposit of cookies. the CNIL said.
After the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into effect in 2018, internet companies faced tougher rules for obtaining consent from users about how their personal information is used.
France prosecuted companies for violations, including Google, Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, Apple and TikTok, with the total amount of fines amounting to nearly 400 million euros. /BGNES