Look who’s watching

Google>> PRIVACY • Europe

 
Published: Friday 15 March 2013

googleGoogle representatives have been asked to appear before European data protection officials over concerns about the way the site collects data on web users. The date for the inquisition has, however, not been fixed. The US search company will be asked to explain why it has not taken “any precise measures” to change its privacy policy since October 2012, when authorities found it was in breach of the European law.

On February 28, a coalition of 30 data protection officials, including Britain’s information commissioner, criticised Google for its “uncontrolled” and “excessive collection of information” about internet users, in some cases without their consent. The authorities are concerned about changes Google introduced to its privacy policies in March last year. The changes made information given by users of one Google service, say Gmail, accessible to those operating another Google service, say YouTube.

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