Google rapped over personal data use
A French report for the EU has said the internet giant should change its practices
A REPORT by French data watchdog Cnil has said Google needs to be more transparent in the way it uses people’s personal information.
Cnil, which made a study on behalf of other similar bodies across the EU, has told the internet giant to change its practices.
Google keeps data on people’s previous searches and uses this to anticipate their interests and respond more quickly to search requests. It also, for example, uses data on surfing habits to display adverts it thinks might interest users.
However this year it also started combining data from its different services (search engine, YouTube, Google+, Gmail etc), which was previously kept separate. For example it could use data on what YouTube videos someone watched to target advertising at them when they use the search engine.
Cnil says the latest practices suggest “an absence of any limits concerning what can be collected and how personal data can be used”.
It is asking for clearer information on what Google uses data for and to create a system whereby people would be asked for consent as to their data being combined between certain given services, perhaps by providing buttons to click.
Cnil also said it regretted that Google had no policy on how long it would keep data for, unlike Microsoft, which gave such assurances with regard to its search engine Bing in 2010.
Cnil says it shared its conclusions with Google, “out of courtesy”, a month ago and is hopeful the company will listen. If it does not, it could apply for sanctions ranging from an official warning to fines – a matter the company is likely to take seriously, notably because of potential damage to its image.
Google is already under investigation by the European Commission for allegedly abusing its dominant position and has for several years been trying to manage its reputation to avoid being seen as the “Big Brother” of the net.
