Google users in France will begin seeing a privacy warning upon visiting google.fr
Recently when Google unified its policies across several popular services like Gmail and YouTube, the French grew concerned with their privacy, believing that Google had committed privacy abuses that went against French law.
This is why France’s Commissions Nationale de l’Informatique et des Libertés has charged Google to notify users that the company has been levied a fine of €150,000 ($204,525) for violating France’s Data-Processing and Freedoms law. Though Google’s legal team looked to block the decision in an emergency hearing arguing “irreperable damage” would be caused to its reputation, the courts were unsympathetic.
Pardon my French, but Google has been made to look like quite the imbécile by the recent ruling, which laid down very specific instructions for the company to carry out. You can see the instructions in the notice, which uses a clear Arial font 13 points or higher in a box that is centered both vertically and horizontally just like the Google search form. According to the Wall Street Journal, France’s CNIL and even data protection authorities in other European countries have determined that Google’s universal policy doesn’t give users enough control over their data. Nor does it sufficiently explain what Google really does with users’ data.
Along with paying a fine, Google has been forced to keep this warning live for 48 consecutive hours. Learn more about the ruling here.
