The EU competition authorities are investigating Google’s collection of data, the European Commission confirmed to Reuters. It's seeking information from the market on how and why Google is collecting data, as part of an ongoing, preliminary investigation. A similar probe was started at Facebook, CNBC reported.
A document seen by Reuters shows the EU’s focus is on data related to local search services, online advertising, online ad targeting services, login services, web browsers and others. A commission spokesperson told CNBC that the investigation into Google and Facebook concerns the way data is gathered, processed, used and monetized, including for advertising purposes.
A formal investigation into Amazon was started by the European Commission in July, looking at how it uses data from third-party sellers on its platform.
Google has received fines of over EUR 8 billion from the European Commission for violating competition law in the past. This has led to changes in its business practices, for licensing the Android system, the Adsense system and displaying search results.
The companies face a similar investigation from US states into their business practices, started in September.
