Google slapped with $1.2 million fine for breaking privacy laws

Google is in trouble once again, and this time it’s not for something nearly as subtle as giant, mysterious barges floating in U.S. waters. Google is being fined €900,000 ($1.23 million USD) for breaking Spain’s data protection law, the maximum fine possible under the law. Spain’s privacy watchdog started its investigation after Google changed the privacy policies on its cloud-based services without informing users.

Spanish privacy watchdogs have fined Google for breaking the country’s law when it combined more than 70 privacy policies into one user information sharing policy last year. The €900,000 ($1.23 million) fine comes at a time when the search giant is under increasing pressure from European authorities and local governments over its privacy policies and business practices.