Google, Facebook face tighter EU grip with new privacy law

Google has been fighting EU antitrust probes for years, while Apple was ordered to pay $14.6 bn

Google, Facebook and other Internet companies will be covered by strict new European Union privacy rules that seek to limit access to consumers’ data.
 
The EU unveiled draft rules in Brussels Tuesday that would give online users more control of their settings and limit the “overload of consent requests” for cookies people encounter when browsing the web. The rules would extend the EU’s ePrivacy law beyond telecommunications operators to include “new providers of electronic communications services, such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Skype, Gmail, iMessage, or Viber,” the regulator said. “I want to ensure confidentiality of electronic communications and privacy,” Andrus