European regulators today said Google’s new privacy policy violates European law, but Google has started rolling it out to users anyway. Google declare new policy in January, said that it will take effect by March 1, and it was implemented today as a system.
Yet the policy faces legal threats. In the US last month, the Electronic Privacy Information Agency filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission, saying that Google’s new privacy policy violates the consent decree the company signed with the FTC in March 2011 after the Google Buzz controversy. .
A French data protection commission is investigating Google’s privacy policy on behalf of the EU said this week that the privacy policy contradicts the European Data Protection Directive and that both French “and EU data protection authorities are very concerned about data sharing between services and will continue their investigations with Google representatives.”
Today, an official with the EU agreed with the French position. “Data protection agencies in European countries have concluded that Google Inc’s new privacy policy violates European law, EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding said on Wednesday,” according to Reuters.
The policy violates European law in several ways, Reding said. “One is that no one is contacted, it does not comply with the law on transparency and it uses the data of private people to hand it over to third parties, which is not what users have agreed to.”
In a letter to Google, French regulators said that Google did not properly inform all relevant authorities quickly and said that “it is impossible for average users” to understand the company’s updated privacy policy because it has general information only. But Google’s Global Privacy Advisor Peter Fleischer said earlier this week that Google will not postpone the implementation of the new policy, and that Google complies with European laws by informing users about the changes.
In a statement sent to Ars this morning, a Google spokesperson said “We are confident that our new privacy policy is simple, clear and transparent and respects all European data protection laws and regulations. It provides all the information you need in Articles 10 & 11 of the guide. , plus much additional information, and the following directions published by the Chapter 29 Act in 2004.”
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