Six
European countries, including Germany and France, have launched legal action
against internet giant Google in a bid to get the company to tighten privacy
settings watchdogs believe violate EU privacy regulations.
Led by
France's National Commission of Information Technology and Liberty (CNIL),
Germany, France, Britain, the Netherlands, Spain and Italy agreed to launch
joint legal action Tuesday on the way the world's largest search engine
collects and stores data on users of its services.
Despite
criticism from US and European consumer advocacy groups, Google initiated a
common user privacy policy across its YouTube, Gmail and Google+ platforms in
2012 giving them unprecedented powers to track user data and develop targeted
advertising.
In October
2012, the 27-member bloc European Union warned Google against applying its new
privacy policy, giving the company four months to make changes, such as
allowing users to opt-out on having their data pooled.
A task
force made up of several European Data protection agencies was established when
the deadline expired in February. Google met with the taskforce's commissioners
in March in an attempt to resolve the dispute and demanded the US company
provide information of the data it planned to collect and the exact purpose it
would serve.
"No
one is against Google's objective of simplicity. It's legitimate. But it needs
to be accompanied by transparency for consumers and the ability to say yes or
no," CNIL head Isabelle Falque Pierrotin said in recent interview.
"Consumers have the right to know how the information is being used and
what's being done with it," she added.
CNIL
maintains it has not seen any change to the company's internet privacy policy
since meeting with company representatives.
"Following
this meeting, no change has been seen…Consequently, all the authorities composing
the taskforce have launched actions on 2 April 2013 on the basis of the
provisions laid down in their respective national legislation (investigations,
inspections, etc)," CNIL wrote in a statement released on their website.
Following
Tuesday's decision to launch legal action, Antonello Soro from the Italian Data
Protection Agency told the DPA news agency, "Google cannot collect and
process European citizens' personal data while ignoring the fact that there are
precise rules in the European Union protecting EU citizens' fundamental
rights."
Google
maintains its user privacy code complies with European law and is aimed at
improving user experience.
In a
statement released to news agency AFP, Google said its "privacy policy
respects European law and allows us to create simpler, more effective services.
We have engaged fully with the data protection agencies involved throughout
this process, and we'll continue to do so going forward."
EU Justice
Commissioner Viviane Reding hailed the action, telling AFP in an email "it
is good to see that six national data protection authorities are teaming up to
enforce Europe's common data protection rules," adding "I am
confident that the European Parliament and the EU Member States will strengthen
Europe's enforcement tools substantially in the course of this year."
The policy,
analysts said Tuesday, was an attempt to boost advertising revenue which made
up 96-percent of the company's earnings in 2011.
jlw/dr (dpa, AFP, AP, Reuters)
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