Google privacy overhaul 'unlawful', say regulators - Google new privacy policy, which comes into force tomorrow, may be illegal and should be suspended, European privacy regulators have said.
The European Commission's data protection advisors expressed "strong doubts" about the lawfulness of Google’s new privacy policy. Google said last month it will introduce a new, unified privacy policy to cover all its services, prompting an investigation by the Article 29 Working Party, a group made up of national privacy regulators.
Google's new privacy policy comes into force on Thursday
The new rules will allow Google to pool data from all its services - from Gmail, to YouTube, to search - to create a single profile for each of its hundreds of millions of users. The consolidated data will allow it to track interests and target advertising more accurately.
Reporting its preliminary findings, the Working Party has now told Google that "our preliminary analysis shows that Google's new policy does not meet the requirements of the European Directive on Data Protection, especially regarding the information provided to data subjects".
Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin of the French Data Protection Authority, which is leading the investigation, said that she welcomed Google’s move in theory. However, “we regret that Google did not take a real opportunity to consult the authorities prior to the announcement of its new privacy policy on 24 January 2012", she added in a letter to Google CEO Larry page.
European data protection authorities "are deeply concerned about the combination of personal data cross services", she reported.
Contrary to public statements by Google representatives suggesting that data protection authorities across the EU had been "extensively pre-briefed", not all authorities were informed, and those that were informed only heard about the changes a few days before the announcement.
They saw the contents of the new privacy policy at best a few hours before its public release, without any opportunity to provide any constructive feedback.”
Ms Falque-PIerrotin said that the new privacy policy provides only generalised information, and that simply telling users what Google would not do with their information was insufficient.
“As a consequence, it is impossible for average users who read the new policy to distinguish which purposes, collected data, recipients or access rights are currently relevant to their use of a particular Google service," she said.
In response, Google said it had engaged with the investigation.
“Over the past month we have offered to meet with the [French data protection authority] on several occasions to answer any questions they might have, and that offer remains open. We believe we’ve found a reasonable balance between the Working Party’s recommendations: to ‘streamline and simplify’ our policies while providing ‘comprehensive information’ to users.
"We are committed to providing our users with a seamless experience across Google’s services, and to making our privacy commitments to them easy to understand.”
Ms Falque Pierrotin however concluded there were “strong doubts” about the "lawfulness” of the plan. She reiterated the Working Party’s call for a pause until its analysis was completed.
Despite previously requesting Google simplify its privacy policies, the Working Party proposed that the firm provide a short, medium and full-length version of them.
European Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding, who had welcomed Google’s new policy said "companies must ensure that their privacy policies are written in clear, everyday language. Consumers must be able to make informed decisions about using Internet-based services.
"I therefore welcome the European data protection authorities’ statement today that Google should delay introducing its privacy policy until questions about its compliance with EU data protection rules have been resolved."
Google sources have previously observed that the Working Party does not have the power to enforce its recommendations. The Working Party said it will present further comments in mid-March. ( telegraph.co.uk )
The European Commission's data protection advisors expressed "strong doubts" about the lawfulness of Google’s new privacy policy. Google said last month it will introduce a new, unified privacy policy to cover all its services, prompting an investigation by the Article 29 Working Party, a group made up of national privacy regulators.
Google's new privacy policy comes into force on Thursday
The new rules will allow Google to pool data from all its services - from Gmail, to YouTube, to search - to create a single profile for each of its hundreds of millions of users. The consolidated data will allow it to track interests and target advertising more accurately.
Reporting its preliminary findings, the Working Party has now told Google that "our preliminary analysis shows that Google's new policy does not meet the requirements of the European Directive on Data Protection, especially regarding the information provided to data subjects".
Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin of the French Data Protection Authority, which is leading the investigation, said that she welcomed Google’s move in theory. However, “we regret that Google did not take a real opportunity to consult the authorities prior to the announcement of its new privacy policy on 24 January 2012", she added in a letter to Google CEO Larry page.
European data protection authorities "are deeply concerned about the combination of personal data cross services", she reported.
Contrary to public statements by Google representatives suggesting that data protection authorities across the EU had been "extensively pre-briefed", not all authorities were informed, and those that were informed only heard about the changes a few days before the announcement.
They saw the contents of the new privacy policy at best a few hours before its public release, without any opportunity to provide any constructive feedback.”
Ms Falque-PIerrotin said that the new privacy policy provides only generalised information, and that simply telling users what Google would not do with their information was insufficient.
“As a consequence, it is impossible for average users who read the new policy to distinguish which purposes, collected data, recipients or access rights are currently relevant to their use of a particular Google service," she said.
In response, Google said it had engaged with the investigation.
“Over the past month we have offered to meet with the [French data protection authority] on several occasions to answer any questions they might have, and that offer remains open. We believe we’ve found a reasonable balance between the Working Party’s recommendations: to ‘streamline and simplify’ our policies while providing ‘comprehensive information’ to users.
"We are committed to providing our users with a seamless experience across Google’s services, and to making our privacy commitments to them easy to understand.”
Ms Falque Pierrotin however concluded there were “strong doubts” about the "lawfulness” of the plan. She reiterated the Working Party’s call for a pause until its analysis was completed.
Despite previously requesting Google simplify its privacy policies, the Working Party proposed that the firm provide a short, medium and full-length version of them.
European Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding, who had welcomed Google’s new policy said "companies must ensure that their privacy policies are written in clear, everyday language. Consumers must be able to make informed decisions about using Internet-based services.
"I therefore welcome the European data protection authorities’ statement today that Google should delay introducing its privacy policy until questions about its compliance with EU data protection rules have been resolved."
Google sources have previously observed that the Working Party does not have the power to enforce its recommendations. The Working Party said it will present further comments in mid-March. ( telegraph.co.uk )
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