Google privacy policy breaks European law

Google has been ordered to make changes to its privacy policy after several EU organisations found it to be breaching European law, by not providing enough information to users on the amount and categories of data being collected about them and used for advertising purposes.

The search giant revamped its privacy policy earlier this year, in what was an attempt it said, to make it easier to understand. However, Google also tweaked it to allow for users to be tracked throughout multiple services, so advertising could be targeted to them across different Google controlled platforms like Google +, Youtube and Gmail.

The report, headed by France's CNIL data protection agency and backed by all 27 European member countries, said that due to the current deficiencies in the privacy policy, “A Google user is unable to determine which categories of data are processed in the service he uses, and for which purpose these data are processed.”

Ultimately CNIL and others gave Google a short, “three or four months” before it planned to enter litigation against the firm.

So far Google has only commented that it disagrees: “Our new privacy policy shows our continued commitment to protecting our users' data and creating quality products. We are confident that our privacy policies respect European law,” said a spokesperson for the company (via The Telegraph).

KitGuru Says: Google taking over the world, has been a punchline for many a joke over the past decade, but tracking users for advertising purposes isn't something we haven't encountered before. Facebook got smashed for this a while back. How many of you are bothered?

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