Google loses challenge to German regulator on privacy

Google has lost most of a challenge to a German regulator’s order that limits how it can combine user data that would allow the company to divine customers’ personal preferences, marital status and sexual orientation.

Thu, 09 Apr, 2015 - 01:00

Karin Matussek

Johannes Caspar, Hamburg’s privacy watchdog, only heeded minor parts of Google’s objection to an order issued in September, he said in an interview yesterday. The company is obligated to either limit how it uses German customer data or get user consent, he said.

“It would certainly be the best solution if Google would now implement the order”, said Caspar, who is among the region’s more aggressive privacy regulators. Google, Facebook and other technology companies are under increasing pressure from regulators to ensure that privacy rights are respected as computer users unwittingly reveal more data online through shopping, social networking and web searches.

Google can attempt to overturn the decision in court.

Klaas Flechsig, a spokesman for Google in Hamburg, said the company was reviewing what steps to take.

“We’ve engaged closely with the Hamburg Data Protection Authority throughout this process to explain our privacy policy and to address their concerns,” Flechsig said in a statement.

The German watchdog last year ordered Google to give users more control over how their data is used. Under the terms of Google’s 2012 privacy policy, the company could combine data it retrieves when customers use various services, including gmail.

That policy would have allowed Google to determine people’s financial situation, sexual orientation and relationship status, the Hamburg regulator said at the time.

European privacy regulators from six countries in 2013 co-ordinated enforcement measures over the company’s failure to address complaints about its privacy policy. The European investigations started after the company sought to harmonise privacy policies for more than 60 products.

Google told European regulators at a meeting at the end of March it is willing to make “substantial changes” in its services to meet data-protection concerns, Caspar said in a statement.