France Fines Google, Facebook Millions Over Tracking Consent

France Fines Google, Facebook Millions Over Tracking Consent
Google employees walks out of Google France building in Paris on Nov. 18, 2019. Michel Euler/AP Photo
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LONDON—French regulators on Thursday fined Google and Facebook a total of more than 200 million euros ($226 million) for not making it as easy for people to opt out of online tracking as it is for them to accept it.

The CNIL data privacy watchdog said its investigations found that while the U.S. online giants gave French users a single button to immediately accept cookies, there wasn’t an equally simple way for them to decline because “several clicks are required to refuse all cookies.”