Google's controversial new privacy policy breaches data laws, says EU - but search giant is going ahead anyway* Authorities say policy is hard to understand 'even for trained privacy professionals'
* Concerns set out in letter to Google CEO Larry Page
* Google says 'To pause now would cause confusion'
* Comes into force on March 1, affecting ALL users of Google accounts
* Users scramble to protect their data from search giantGoogle’s controversial new privacy policy appears to violate European law, EU authorities said in an email to Google CEO Larry Page on Tuesday - just two days before the new guidelines are set to come into force.
CNIL, the French agency in charge of the investigation, said Google’s explanation of how it will use the data was too vague and difficult to understand ‘even for trained privacy professionals.’
The search giant said it intends to go ahead with the change anyway.
‘We have notified over 350 million authenticated Google users and provided highly visible notifications on our home page and in search results for our non-authenticated users,’ Google's privacy chief Peter Fleischer wrote.
‘To pause now would cause a great deal of confusion for users.’
Google announced its new privacy policy with much fanfare last month - a 'one-size-fits-all' policy which will allow the search giant to share private data between its services so that, for instance, information harvested from Google searches can be used to target adverts within its Gmail service.
The working group wrote to Google CEO Larry Page to say that the search giant should 'halt' its new privacy policy until privacy groups had had a chance to examine it more thoroughlyThe EU’s data protection authorities asked French regulator CNIL to investigate the new policy in January.
‘Our preliminary analysis shows that Google’s new policy does not meet the requirements of the European Directive on Data Protection,’ CNIL said in a letter to Google Chief Executive Larry Page, which was posted on CNIL's website this week.
The new policy makes it easier for Google to combine the data of one person using different services such as the search engine, YouTube or Gmail if he is logged into his Google account.
That allows Google to create a broader profile of that user and target advertising based on that person’s interests and search history more accurately. Advertising is the main way Google makes its money.
CNIL said data protection authorities in the EU ‘are deeply concerned about the combination of personal data across services,’ adding they had ‘strong doubts about the lawfulness and fairness of such processing.’
CNIL, the French agency in charge of the investigation, said Google¿s explanation of how it will use the data was too vague and difficult to understand ¿even for trained privacy professionals¿Vivian Reding, the EU’s Justice Commissioner who oversees the bloc’s data protection rules, said she welcomed CNIL’s letter and called on Google to delay its new policy.
Google argues that combining the data into one profile makes search results more relevant and allows a user to cross-navigate between different services more easily. It says the main purpose of the new policy is to combine the more than 70 different rules for Google’s wide-ranging services into one that is simpler and more readable.
‘We are confident that our new simple, clear and transparent privacy policy respects all European data protection laws and principles,’ wrote Fleischer.
The policy change has horrified privacy advocates and bloggers - tech site ZDNet said that Google would 'know more about you than your wife does' and said the policy was 'Big Brother-ish'.
The European Union working party earlier asked for Google to stop the new policy while the working group investigated whether personal data is protected.
‘We call for a pause to ensure that there can be no misunderstanding about Google’s commitments to information rights of EU citizens.’
‘Given the wide range of services you offer, and the popularity of these services, changes in your privacy policy may affect many citizens in most EU member states,’ the group wrote to Google Chief Executive Larry Page.
‘We wish to check the possible consequences for the protection of the personal data of citizens,’ it said.
Google described the privacy policy as being 'simplified' in an email it sent to all Gmail users.
'If you're signed into Google, we can do things like suggest search queries - or tailor your search results - based on the interests you've expressed in Google Plus, Gmail and YouTube,’ Google said a new overview page for its privacy policies.
‘We'll better understand (what) you're searching for and get you those results faster.’
Under fire: Google is accused of 'bypassing' Apple's privacy protection to gather advertising information
Google sees the changes as making its products easier to use by sharing a privacy policy - and information - across everything from Gmail accounts to YouTube while users are signed inThe European commissioner in charge of data protection, Viviane Reding, welcomed the move, saying it was a necessary to establish that EU data rules were being firmly applied.
‘The Commission therefore calls on Europe’s data protection authorities to ensure that EU law is fully complied with in Google’s new privacy policy,’ she said in a statement.
Google said the raising of concerns came as a surprise.
‘We briefed most of the members of the working party in the weeks leading up to our announcement,’ said Al Verney, Google’s spokesman in Brussels.
‘None of them expressed substantial concerns at the time, but of course we’re happy to speak with any data protection authority that has questions.’
Read more: In DailyMail By Rob Waugh Last updated at 4:05 PM on 29th February 2012
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Topic: Google's controversial new privacy policy breaches data laws, says EU (Read 4187 times)
