"Microsoft Fined $64 Million by France Over Cookies Used in Bing Searches"

In an effort to enforce Europe's stricter data protection law, France's privacy authority fined Microsoft $64 million for not providing clear enough instructions for users to reject cookies used for Internet advertisements. CNIL, France's digital privacy authority, announced on Thursday that it conducted multiple investigations on Microsoft's Bing search engine between September 2020 and May 2021 and discovered that the site dropped advertising cookies on users' terminals without their explicit agreement. The website also lacked an option that allowed users to reject cookies as easily as they could accept them. According to CNIL, two clicks were required to reject all cookies, while just one was required to accept them. Cookies are files that track and monitor the websites a user visits and are frequently used to customize Internet advertisements. CNIL revealed that the $64 million fine against Microsoft is justified by the size of the company's advertising revenue, which was indirectly produced by the data obtained via cookies. Microsoft has been ordered to develop a streamlined cookie refusal mechanism within three months or face further fines of $64 million per day, according to CNIL. A spokeswoman for Microsoft noted that the company had previously made improvements to add a button for advertising cookies before the investigation began, but that it remained concerned with the CNIL's demand to obtain consent for cookies used to detect advertising fraud. This article continues to discuss Microsoft being fined $64 million by France because of cookies used in Bing searches. 

SC Magazine reports "Microsoft Fined $64 Million by France Over Cookies Used in Bing Searches"