Spain fines Google for privacy law breach

Google has been hit by a near million euro fine for breaching Spanish privacy laws by combining different information on users from its multiple services without letting consumers in on it, and not giving them access to the data that's held on them.

This is all about a move in 2012, that saw Google change its cloud storage terms and conditions, which ultimately led to Google being investigated by multiple EU countries, including Spain. Google was eventually found to have compiled information on Spanish citizens, “without providing in many cases the adequate information about the data that is being gathered, why it is gathered and without obtaining the consent of the owners,” said the Spanish Agency for Data Protection in a statement.

Google didn't take the fine well…

The authorities also criticised the wording of Google terms and conditions, which were too vague it thought and used deliberately misleading and unclear language to describe what data was gathered on users. That data was also being stored for unknown purposes and for an extended period of time.

The 900,000 euro (£750,000) fine is hardly something that will bother Google with its $50 billion+ yearly revenue, but as Reuters points out, it is perhaps telling of a climate of change in the EU with regards to the privacy of citizens. Other countries like The Netherlands and France have also been mulling over fines for the search giant.

KitGuru Says: There's got to be a middle ground with this somewhere. Advertisers need to make money online, because otherwise most websites wouldn't exists – Kitguru included, so white list us if you can – but likewise nobody wants mountains of information about them being sold on to companies. 

Any ideas readers?

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