India, Jan. 28 -- Despite the huge build up to the European Union's new data privacy rules, GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), going into effect in May 2018, the deadline came and went without a lot of fanfare. The world did not end. Companies weren't shut down. There really hasn't been a lot of news about enforcement actions. But that changed this week when France's data protection authority, CNIL, imposed a fine of 50 million euros ($57 million) on Google.

The world still did not end. After all, a fine of $57 million is sort of the equivalent of pocket change to a company as big as Google. The tech giant posted nearly $111 billion in revenue for 2017 (and hasn't yet announced 2018 full year revenue but revenue was nearly at $10...