Google fined $1.2 million by Spain for breaking data protection, privacy law

[mmadhankumar]

Spain's privacy watchdog on Thursday fined Google for breaking the country's data protection law when combining personal information from its many different online services and failing to inform users clearly on how it uses their data.
Although the 900,000 euro fine is modest for Google, which has a market capitalisation of over $350 billion, the move reflects growing concerns across Europe about the volume of personal data that is held in foreign jurisdictions in so-called "cloud" storage services.

Under such services, data is stored remotely via the Internet instead of on-site, giving individuals little control over their personal information.

Last month, the Dutch Data Protection Authority also said Google was in breach of the national data privacy law for the same practices while France moved closer to fining the U.S. internet giant in September.

Investigations are taking place in at least three other European countries.

The probes were triggered after Google in March 2012 unilaterally imposed new terms of service on users of all its cloud services, which include the YouTube video streaming site, the GMail email service, and the ubiquitous Google search engine.

That decision triggered privacy investigations in six European countries, including Spain.

"Inspections have shown that Google compiles personal information through close to one hundred services and products it offers in Spain, without providing in many cases the adequate information about the data that is being gathered, why it is gathered and without obtaining the consent of the owners," said the Spanish Agency for Data Protection in a statement.

Google said it had engaged with the Spanish authorities to explain its privacy policy and would decide on which action to take once it had the opportunity to fully read its report.

The agency said users were not sufficiently informed that Google filtered the content of their emails and files to display advertising and, when it did it, used a terminology that was imprecise, unclear and with generic expressions.

It also said the company was breaking the law by using data it gathered for purposes that are unspecified and keeping this information for an indefinite time, while sometimes hindering users in their right to erase, access or modify this data.

In November Google agreed to pay a $17 million fine to settle allegations that it secretly tracked Web users by placing special digital files on the Web browsers of their smartphones.


Google fined 12 million by Spain for breaking data protection, privacy law | NDTV Gadgets

 

[Rushil]

Spanish data protection agency slaps Google with a €900,000 fine

MUMBAI: Google has been penalised with €900,000 by the Spanish Data Protection Agency (AEPD) (Spanish: Agencia Española de Protección de Datos) for breaking its protection laws. The fine was imposed after Google changed its privacy policy and started combining consumer data, which people registered while using Google’s many services.

Google also failed to explain to the agency about customer browsing and what it does with that information. The agency claims to have found that Google runs roughshod over local users’ data and treats it in a way that can be considered illegal.

The AEPD declared in a statement that Google that has been processing personal data in the framework of its new privacy policy is illegal.
Google, according to the agency, has violated the right to protection of personal data laid down in Article 18 of Spanish Constitution and regulated in the LOPD [Organic Law of the Protection of Personal Data]. The search browser has broken three parts of the Spanish law and hence will be fined €300,000 for each incident.

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