France resorted to imposing a fine on a company Microsoft USA, amounting to 60 million euros, equivalent to about $ 63.93 million, due to Microsoft’s violation of the country’s rules regarding the policy of using cookies.
France imposes a fine on Microsoft
For its part, the French National Commission for Technology and Liberties (CNIL) clarified, in a statement, that the Microsoft Bing search engine did not create a system that allows users to refuse cookies as easily as they are accepted, according to Forbes Middle East.
The committee conducted investigations, and found on its background, that when the user visits this website “bing.com”, cookies will be saved on the computer without asking the user’s initial consent.
Accordingly, the commission gave Microsoft three months to rectify the problem, with a potential additional fine of 60,000 euros ($63.9,000) for each day of delay.
The French committee confirmed that the fine was partially justified, noting the profits it had made company From revenue indirectly generated by the data collected through cookies.
A cookie is a data file that is installed on a user’s device when they visit websites, allowing information about them to be saved, tracked, and understand their behavior while browsing the Internet, which helps push advertisements tailored to that user.
Microsoft said, in a statement, that it had made major changes to its cookie practices even before this investigation began.
Huge revenue
For its part, Microsoft achieved revenues of $ 50.1 billion in the third quarter of this year, exceeding expectations, as the shift to hybrid work increased demand for its cloud services, and helped mitigate the impact of the recession in the PC business.
The software company’s revenue grew 11% to $50.12 billion for the quarter ended Sept. 30, compared to $45.32 billion a year earlier, while analysts had expected an average of $49.61 billion, according to Refinitiv IBES data.