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France’s Privacy Watchdog Fines Microsoft Over Cookies

By  |  December 22, 2022

France’s privacy watchdog has fined  US tech giant Microsoft €60 million for foisting advertising cookies on users.

In the largest fine imposed in 2022, the National Commission for Technology and Freedoms (CNIL) said Microsoft’s search engine Bing had not set up a system allowing users to refuse cookies as simply as accepting them.

Related: Microsoft Cloud Computing Will Change To Align With EU Wishes Next Month

The French regulator said that after investigations it found that “when users visited this site, cookies were deposited on their terminal without their consent, while these cookies were used, among others, for advertising purposes.”

It also “observed that there was no button allowing it to refuse the deposit of cookies as easily as accepting it.”