France Threatens Google Inc (GOOG) With Privacy Fines

In Britain, the Information Commissioner’s Office said its investigation into whether Google’s privacy policy complies with UK law is still under way and it will soon contact Google about its preliminary findings.

The Dutch privacy watchdog, the College for the Protection of Personal Data, said it is investigating Google’s “privacy conditions” but spokeswoman Lysette Rutgers declined further comment while the investigation is ongoing.

France’s data protection agency led a European investigation last year into Google’s privacy policy.

“French law demands that when you’re collecting information about someone, you need to collect it for a precise reason,” said CNIL president Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin.

She said the outcry about the role of Google and other online players in government surveillance illustrates that users want transparency about where their data goes.

Google’s image has suffered since it was identified this month as one of nine U.S. Internet companies that gave the National Security Agency data on its customers, as part of the agency’s efforts to track foreign threats to U.S. national security. Revelations about the program, known as PRISM, by a former NSA contractor has opened a debate about the privacy of Americans’ communications.

In the European privacy dispute, Nick Pickles of Britain-based watchdog Big Brother Watch said, “There’s a real worry that (the European fines) won’t be a particularly strong deterrent, that Google may see it as a price of doing business.”

“People shouldn’t be able to ignore people’s rights and the law, make huge profits and then continue acting as if nothing was amiss,” he said.

Pickles noted that many European countries are limited by laws on data protection that date from before Google was even born 15 years ago.

EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding proposed last year that the maximum penalties for privacy matters be raised from the current €600,000 to 2 percent of a company’s global sales.

The legal action could also impact huge trans-Atlantic trade negotiations that President Obama announced on Monday.

In the wake of the NSA data snooping scandal, several EU officials and politicians want data protection issues to be at the heart of the trade talks. The U.S. Ambassador to the EU expressed concern Thursday that privacy issues shouldn’t dominate the talks.

The article France Threatens Google With Privacy Fines originally appeared on Fool.com is written by Associated Press.

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