Google, Tinder to be probed over data processing of European users

The Data Protection Commission Ireland has launched an inquiry against the Silicon Valley Giants, Google ILC and Tinder on February 4 for processing the data of European users. According to Ireland's independent supervisory authority for data protection, they had received complaints from various European consumer associations about the companies' lack of transparency in their location data processing. 

According to the official statement by the DPC, the complaints have further raised the concerns related to the legality of Google's data processing and the inquiry will establish whether the company had a legal basis for their process and if they meet the obligations as a data controller with respect to the transparency. 

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DPC said in a statement, “The Data Protection Commission, in its role as Lead Supervisory Authority for Google, has received a number of complaints from various Consumer Organisations across the EU.”

However, Google had reportedly said in a statement that it will 'fully cooperate' with the investigation and also said it will work with the regulators along with the consumer associations across Europe. Google also added that it had made 'a number of product changes' in order to improve user transparency and control over location data. There already have been a separate investigation on the company by DPC since May over data protection in the field of online advertising. 

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Complaints since Tinder came to effect

DPC also said that since the MTCH Technology Services Limited or Tinder came into service, it had been monitoring complaints from its users. The issues were mainly related to 'systematic data protection issues'. Furthermore, these concerns have been flagged by people both in Ireland and across the European countries. 

DPC said in a statement, “Since the GDPR came into effect, the Data Protection Commission has been actively monitoring complaints received from individuals in order to identify thematic and possible systemic data protection issues.”

Keeping the concerns in place, DPC has launched an own-volition Statutory Inquiry with respect to the MTCH Technology Services Limited. Furthermore, this inquiry will disclose the legality of the company's data processing and also its obligation to transparency along with its compliance with data subject right's requests. 

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