BRUSSELS (AP) — Google’s new privacy policy appears to
violate the European Union’s data protection rules, France’s regulator
said Tuesday, just two days before the new guidelines are set to come
into force.
Google announced its new privacy policy with much
fanfare last month. The rules, which are set to come into force on
Thursday, regulate how the Web giant uses the enormous amounts of
personal data its collects through its search engine, email and other
services.
However, the EU’s data protection authorities are
concerned about the privacy effects of the policy and earlier this month
asked French regulator CNIL to investigate them.
"Our preliminary
analysis shows that Google’s new policy does not meet the requirements
of the European Directive on Data Protection," CNIL said in a letter to
Google Chief Executive Larry Page. The letter was sent Monday and posted
on CNIL’s website Tuesday.
The agency said Google’s explanation
of how it will use the data was too vague and difficult to understand
"even for trained privacy professionals"
The new policy makes it
easier for Google to combine the data of one person using different
services such as the search engine, YouTube or Gmail if he is logged
into his Google account. That allows Google to create a broader profile
of that user and target advertising based on that person’s interests and
search history more accurately. Advertising is the main way Google
makes its money.
Google argues that combining the data into one
profile also makes search results more relevant and allows a user to
cross-navigate between different services more easily.
"Over the
past month we have asked to meet with the CNIL on several occasions to
answer any questions they might have, and that offer remains open," said
Peter Fleischer, Google’s global privacy counsel. "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."
The
probe of the privacy policy is one of several battle lines between
Google and the European Commission, the executive arms of the 27-country
EU.
Google’s search engine has a market share of more than 90
percent in the EU, with rival services like Microsoft’s Bing gaining
little traction.
The Commission is already examining whether
Google uses this dominance to stop other search engines from entering
the market. It is also investigating complaints from Microsoft and Apple
into whether Motorola, which Google is in the process of taking over,
is breaking EU competition rules in its aggressive enforcement of
standard-essential patents.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.