CNIL says Google broke a French privacy law when it merged the privacy policies of its services
The French government's privacy watchdog has fined Google €150,000 (US$204,000) over changes the company made to its privacy policy in March 2012.
The changes Google made to its privacy policy don't comply with the French Data Protection Act, the Commission Nationale de L'Informatique et des Libertes (CNIL) said Wednesday.
Google's decision in 2012 to merge the privacy policies of about 60 of its services, including search YouTube, Gmail, Picasa and Docs, led to the French investigation. Google failed to sufficiently inform users about how the services would use their personal data and did not comply with French requirements to get user permission before installing cookies on their computers, CNIL said. Google also combined the data it collects about its users "across all of its services without any legal basis," CNIL said in a press release.
Google's actions had a widespread effect in France, the agency said. "Nearly all Internet users in France are impacted by this decision due to the number of services concerned," it said.
A Google spokeswoman said the company is reading CNIL's report closely to determine its next steps. "We've engaged fully with the CNIL throughout this process to explain our privacy policy and how it allows us to create simpler, more effective services," she added by email.
CNIL's Sanctions Committee did not challenge Google's right to simplify its privacy policies by merging them, the agency said.
The Sanctions Committee has ordered Google to publish the agency's decision at Google.fr within 48 hours and keep it up for eight days.
CNIL announced an investigation into the privacy policy change in September.
Grant Gross covers technology and telecom policy in the U.S. government for The IDG News Service. Follow Grant on Twitter at GrantGross. Grant's email address is grant_gross@idg.com.
Our latest CMO 2022 readiness episode on the great resignation and staff motivation and leadership is now live!
Creating meaningful brands should be a holistic and considered process. However, all too frequently it’s one that is disparate and reactive, where one objective is prioritized at the expense of all others. So, what are the key pieces to the ‘good’ brand puzzle?
Companies encounter a variety of challenges when it comes to marketing overseas. Marketing departments often don’t know much about the business and cultural context of the international audiences they are trying to reach. Sometimes they are also unsure about what kind of marketing they should be doing.
Using data is a hot topic right now. Leaders are realising data can no longer just be the responsibility of dedicated analysts or staff with ‘data’ in their title or role description.
Anyone can become a victim of the sophisticated schemes set up by these scam websites. It's not about being smart; I don't consider mysel...
Mathieu Lecompte
ACCC takes Meta to court over scam cryptocurrency advertising
Nice blog!Blog is really informative , valuable.keep updating us with such amazing blogs.influencer agency in Melbourne
Rajat Kumar
Why flipping Status Quo Bias is the key to B2B marketing success
good this information are very helpful for millions of peoples customer loyalty Consultant is an important part of every business.
Tom Devid
Report: 4 ways to generate customer loyalty
Great post, thanks for sharing such a informative content.
CodeWare Limited
APAC software company brings on first VP of growth
This article highlights Gartner’s latest digital experience platforms report and how they are influencing content operations ecosystems. ...
vikram Roy
Gartner 2022 Digital Experience Platforms reveals leading vendor players