New Google privacy policy comes into effect

Google's new privacy policy comes into effect today, despite warnings it might violate European law.

Announced with much fanfare last month, the policy regulates how the web giant uses the enormous amounts of personal data it collects through its search engine, email and other services.

However French data regulators have launched a Europe-wide investigation after raising concerns.

France's CNIL agency said that Google’s explanation of how it will use the data was too vague and difficult to understand “even for trained privacy professionals”

It means private data collected by one Google service such as YouTube and Gmail can be shared with its other sites.

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.

However there are ways of limiting the amount of data collected.

The probe of the privacy policy is one of several battle lines between Google and the European Commission, the executive arm of the 27-country EU.

Google’s search engine has a market share of more than 90% in the EU, with rival services such as 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.