Google ‘set to break data rules’
Google announced its revised policy with much fanfare last month. It regulates how the web giant uses the enormous amounts of personal data it collects through its search engine, email, and other services.
The EU’s data protection authorities are concerned about the privacy effects of the policy and asked French regulator CNIL to investigate them.
CNIL said its “preliminary analysis shows that Google’s new policy does not meet the requirements of the European directive on data protection”.
The agency said in a letter posted on its website that Google’s explanation of how it would 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 they are logged in to their 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 makes search results more relevant and allows a user to cross-navigate between different services more easily.
Google said it had offered to meet the CNIL to answer its questions.
Google’s search engine has a market share of over 90% in the EU.
