What : Fine imposed for privacy violations
What is in news : European Union has imposed a fine of $886.6 million or 746 million euro on Amazon.com Inc. European Union fined Amazon for processing personal data in violation of EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Background :
• Tech giants have increasingly come under scrutiny of regulators in EU after it enacted its General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in 2018.
• GDPR provides enough teeth to go after any abuse of users’ data. GDPR was put forward after three years of negotiations among EU members.
• Now, GDPR have been incorporated as part of their national laws as a result companies can face action across jurisdictions in case, they violate the rules.
About GDPR: GDPR came in to effect in 2018. Basic idea of the regulation is that companies should get explicit consent of users before leveraging any data or information they collect from them. It seeks to achieve its goal by imposing steep fines.