Google to streamline privacy policies on March 1st: the backlash and response
Google has announced that it'll be updating its privacy policy and terms of service across all of its products and services on March 1st. The company has launched a massive campaign to spread the word about the changes. Since the announcement, the company has faced scrutiny and criticism, including some questions from members of the US congress. You can find the whole story here as it continues to develop.
Google braces for fines in Europe over privacy policy
After a lengthy investigation, the French independent administrative authority CNIL has advised EU countries to take action against Google over its privacy policy. In a press release today, CNIL said that Google has failed to respond to its requests to modify the policy, and the watchdog passing the matter over to member states to deal with accordingly. The UK, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, and the Netherlands were all involved in the investigation, and It's now up to regulators in each...
Google will face further scrutiny from EU regulators over 2012 privacy policy changes
The European Union first expressed concern about Google's new privacy policy last February, and now, more than a year later, Reuters reports that EU regulators are preparing to take action against the company this summer. Last October, after a probe into Google's new privacy policy, regulators urged the company to revise its policy in order to comply with data protection laws. Regulators were not pleased with Google's response.
EU regulators gave Google four months to change its policies...
EU regulators say Google must revise its privacy policy
EU regulators have urged Google to implement changes to the way it handles user data. CNiL, an independent French watchdog concerned with data protection, today revealed the results of a probe into Google's much-maligned unified privacy policy at the same time as publishing an open letter to Google CEO Larry Page. The watchdog, which undertook the investigation on the behalf of the European Union, explained that its issues stem from Google providing its users with "incomplete or approximate...
Web & Social
Is Google Drive worse for privacy than iCloud, Skydrive, and Dropbox?
The Google Drive cloud storage service launched yesterday to much fanfare, but as with any new Google product, there are important questions about how the company will actually use personal data uploaded to the system. Google sells ads against your data, after all, and the more data you give the company, the more opportunity it has to screw up. That means the Google Drive terms of service and privacy policy are critically important, and there's been a lot of selective interpretation floating...
Google responds to EU privacy policy questions, pausing rollout would have 'proved confusing'
The European Union's concerns over Google's new privacy policy have led to a France-led investigation into the changes, and now Google has responded to the first volley of questioning into the matter. In a letter to France's National Commission for Computing and Civil Liberties (CNIL), the company addresses 24 of the 69 questions it was asked in a March 16th letter from the body, stating that the company has "worked hard" to provide a policy that is easily understood by users, and that if the...
EU claims new Google privacy policy breaks European law
The European Union launched a France-led investigation into Google's new privacy policy in February, and now that the policy has rolled out EU justice commissioner Viviane Reding says it breaches the union's law. Reding told the BBC that "the new rules are not in accordance with the European law, and that the transparency rules have not been applied," adding that another issue is that "nobody had been consulted" about the changes. Google responded indirectly on its official blog, stating that...
Policy & Law
Google's controversial new privacy policy now in effect
Google's new privacy policy is going into effect today, despite widespread criticism that saw the company release an ad campaign in order to win public support for the changes. Among those critical of the new policy have been EU investigators, who claim they weren't adequately briefed of Google's changes; the chairman of the FTC, who called the new policy "a fairly binary and somewhat brutal choice;" and even 36 US attorneys general, who jointly sent a letter to the company expressing their...
Web & Social
Google's new privacy policy under fire from EU investigators
The French government has requested that Google delay the launch of its new privacy policy just two days before it's scheduled to take effect. After being selected to head the European Union's investigation into the legality of the new privacy policy, France's National Commission for Computing and Civil Liberties (CNIL) has sent an open letter to Google CEO Larry Page outlining the EU's concerns. In it, the CNIL wrote that the new policy "does not meet the requirements of the European...
Policy & Law
A 'brutal choice': The FTC's chairman discusses Google's new privacy policy
He couldn't talk about the details of last year's Google Buzz settlement, but that didn't stop FTC chairman Jon Leibowitz from calling Google's new privacy policy "a fairly binary and somewhat brutal choice that they're giving consumers" on an episode of C-SPAN's Newsmakers on Sunday. The new policy, which goes into effect March 1st, has faced opposition from the EC's Article 29 Working Party — a government group tasked with advising the Commission on data protection, and even a group of 36...
US attorneys general express concerns over Google's privacy policy
Google's new privacy policy is set to go into effect a week from now, but the change is still being contested by regulatory bodies worldwide. In a letter sent yesterday to Google CEO Larry Page, 36 US attorneys general raised a number of issues with the policy, including their concern over the ability to opt out, the potential problems with sharing user data between services, and the dependence of Android smartphone owners on Google for service. They also brought up the effect that the policy...
Web & Social
European regulators calling on Google to halt changes to its privacy policy
Add the European Union to the list of those taking issue with Google's new privacy policy: Reuters is reporting that the EU wants Google to delay the implementation of its new privacy policy so it can investigate whether users' data is sufficiently protected under the new rules. This request was made by the Article 29 Working Party, an independent group of data protection from the EU's 27 countries, plus the EU's executive European Commission (whose VP recently spoke out against SOPA), with...
Microsoft
Microsoft makes its 'Gmail Man' video official in privacy fight against Google
We have seen the "Gmail Man" video before thanks to a leak, but Microsoft just posted it to the company's official YouTube, Twitter and Facebook pages. The spoof video was originally broadcast at Microsoft's internal Global Exchange sales conference on July 20th last year, and it depicts a mail man riffling through letters (email) to find keywords for ads. "Would you trust this guy to deliver your mail?" asks Microsoft on its Facebook page, one Facebook commenter responded "I trust him about...
Google debunks Microsoft's claims about its new privacy policies
Google's had a rough week since it first announced revisions to its privacy policies — the government's keeping watch and Microsoft just released ads explicitly mentioning Google as a way to play off consumer fears about the privacy of their data. Google's not taking it lying down, though — following up on ads it started running today, Google has posted a long rebuttal of many claims that have surfaced, with a special focus on Microsoft's commentary. Google refutes a number of claims,...
Web & Social
Google strikes back against privacy policy fears with new ads
If you've read a major US paper or taken the New York subway lately, you've probably seen Google's "Good to Know" ads, which offer friendly explanations of cookies and other concepts relating to the company's upcoming privacy policy change. But after being knocked by Microsoft in an ad campaign for not "putting people first," Google is taking a more direct tack: placing web ads that claim "We're changing our Privacy Policy. Not your privacy controls" on sites like the Washington Post.
T...
Microsoft
Microsoft exploits Google privacy concerns in newspaper ads
Microsoft says it plans to run a series of newspaper adverts this week, taking advantage of concerns over Google's updated privacy policy while advertising its own alternatives. The adverts will run in major US newspapers like the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and USA Today, and will highlight the recent changes in Google's privacy policy. Google introduced a simpler universal privacy policy last month, but some customers were left confused and concerned by some of the changes.
M...
Policy & Law
Google clarifies that its new privacy policy won't change users' privacy settings
Despite Google's best efforts to introduce a simpler universal privacy policy across its numerous products, it seems that its customers aren't finding the new document entirely transparent, with some left confused and concerned by the changes being made. In a post on the Google Public Policy Blog, Google's director of Public Policy Pablo Chavez explains that although the privacy policy might be changing, users' privacy controls — and the permissions they give their content — will remain...
Google's new data-sharing privacy policy comes under scrutiny
The government seems to be on high-alert regarding Google's privacy practices. The company only just announced its new simplified privacy policy on sharing your data across all its services, and lawmakers have responded with a long list of questions. In a letter to Larry Page, eight members of Congress asked if users will be able to opt-out of the new data sharing policy, and how they can easily exercise such an option if it exists at all. The letter also asks if teenagers and children will...
Android
Google to streamline privacy policies and terms of service across all services on March 1st
Google has just announced that it'll be updating its privacy policy and terms of service across its entire range of products and services on March 1st. The company says that it has made the changes in order to streamline its legal documents and to help it offer better services that integrate with each other well. In a post on its official blog, the company says it has removed 60 out of over 70 privacy notices and consolidated them into one main privacy policy.
The update comes after some c...
