France’s data protection watchdog said Google had broken French law and
gave it three months to change its privacy policies or risk a fine of up
to 150,000 euros $200,000.
News From A Resource of Malya Business News Online http://www.malaya.com.ph/
PARIS/MADRID - France and Spain led a Europe-wide push on Thursday to
get U.S. Internet giant Google to change its policies on collecting
user data.
News that the U.S. National Security Agency under the Prism
surveillance programme secretly gathered user data from nine U.S.
companies, including Google, to track people’s movements and contacts
makes the timing especially sensitive for Google.
France’s data protection watchdog said Google had broken French law
and gave it three months to change its privacy policies or risk a fine
of up to 150,000 euros $200,000.
Spain’s Data Protection Agency told Google it would be fined between
40,000 euros and 300,000 euros for each of the five violations of the
law, that it had failed to be clear about what it did with data, may be
processing a “disproportionate” amount and holding onto it for an
“undetermined or unjustified” period of time.
The CNIL, which has been leading Europe’s inquiry since Google
launched its consolidated privacy policy in March 2012, said Britain,
Germany, Italy and the Netherlands would be taking similar action
against the world’s No. 1 search engine.
Google could face fines totalling several million euros.
“By the end of July, all the authorities within the EU data
protection task force will have taken coercive action against Google,”
said CNIL President Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin.
Last year, Google consolidated its 60 privacy policies into one and
started combining data collected on individual users across its
services, including YouTube, Gmail and social network Google+. It gave
users no means to opt out.
National data protection regulators in Europe began a joint inquiry
as a result. They gave Google until February to propose changes but it
did not make any. Google had several meetings with the watchdogs and
argued that combining its policies made it easier for users to
understand.
The CNIL’s move is seen by legal experts and policymakers as a test
of Europe’s ability to influence the behaviour of international Internet
companies.
Britain is still considering whether its law has been broken and will write to Google soon with its findings, the CNIL said.
And Google is due to answer allegations on the issue in a German
court hearing late next week, a spokesman for the country’s data
protection regulator said.
Google said it would continue to work with the authorities in France and elsewhere.
“Our privacy policy respects European law.... Continue Reading with Link http://www.malaya.com.ph/index.php/news/international/34171-france-spain-take-action-vs-google-on-privacy
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