Spain Data Protection Watchdog Fines Google

Looks like Google is in trouble again

After six months of legal drama, Google is set to be fined €900,000 Euro or $1.38 million in regards to serious violations of users’ privacy.  The Spanish Data Protection Agency came out saying;

“Google unlawfully collects and processes personal information of users of various Google services such as Gmail. The agency considers that Google seriously violates the right to the protection of personal data.”

This isn’t the only problem for Google at the moment, with France too saying it will take action against the company. Also authorities in Germany, Italy, The Netherlands and Britain also opening up parallel actions. Most of these cases will focus on getting Google to bring up its privacy policy to be in line with the legal norms in each country.  With the Spanish Data Protection Agency fining Google  €3000,000 Euro for each of the three counts of breaching Spain’s data protection laws. They also went on to say;

“Google’s privacy policy did not clearly inform users of how it users data collected, for example information from emails that is gathered to generate targeted advertising. Also an issue is how long Google keeps the data they have collected and making it difficult for users to query the use of their data that has been collected”.

Just like other tech giants Google has come under fire following the leaks by Edward Snowden in regards to how the US has been collecting data from users all over the world. However a recent survey conducted for the Computer and Communications Industry Association claims that users are more concerned about the theft of personal and financial information than that of online privacy and tracking by marketers.

Thank you The Australian for providing us with this information.

Image courtesy of BGR.