Not for the first time, food delivery firm Foodinho has been spanked by Italy's privacy watchdog. According to Reuters, the Glovo-owned on-demand delivery app has been handed a fine of €5 million ($5.20 million) after having been found unlawfully processing the data of more than 35,000 riders registered on the platform.

Issues included that user geolocation data was uploaded to third parties without prior notice to the riders, including — as of August 2023 — when they were not working. The regulatory agency has issued an order to implement changes with respect to the rider-to-app messages and the GPS tracking feature so it can be turned off when the riders are off the job.

Foodinho has also been barred from using riders' biometric data, such as facial recognition, for identity verification.

As far back as 2021, when Foodinho had about 19,000 registered riders, Italy's watchdog fined it around $3 million for a laundry list of data protection and algorithmic management issues. So the app hasn't proved to be "once bitten, twice shy" on privacy compliance.