French Court Orders Google to Display Fine For Privacy Breach

[Turk]

PARIS Fri Feb 7, 2014 10:43pm IST

(Reuters) - Google (GOOG.O) will have to display on its French search page a notice saying it has been fined by the local data-protection watchdog over how user information is tracked and stored, France's top administrative court ruled on Friday.

The U.S. search engine said it would comply with the order but would keep fighting the 150,000-euro fine issued last month by privacy watchdog CNIL.

CNIL has objected to Google's method of combining data collected on individual users across services such as YouTube, Gmail and social network Google+. The move towards broad storage was introduced by Google in March 2012 and combined 60 privacy policies into one, giving users no means to opt out.

The web giant appealed the CNIL's fine last month as well as the order to post a notice of the sanction on its google.fr homepage for 48 hours. Google specifically asked the Conseil d'Etat, France's top administrative court, to suspend that order while it re-examines the case.

On Friday, the Conseil d'Etat ruled that there was not enough urgency nor proof of damage to Google's reputation to warrant such a suspension. This means Google will have to post the CNIL's decision on its French homepage even while it keeps fighting it in court.

"We've engaged fully with the CNIL throughout this process to explain our privacy policy and how it allows us to create simpler, more effective services," a Google spokesman said in an e-mailed statement.

"We will comply with the order to post the notice, but we'll also continue with our appeal before the Conseil d'Etat."

Spain, Britain, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands have also opened similar cases against Google, arguing that its privacy policy breached local rules protecting consumers on how their personal data is processed and stored.
http://in.reuters.com/article/2014/02/07/google-privacy-france-idINDEEA160ER20140207

[anuseems]

Thanks for sharing

[212eta]

Let's hope more countries will follow...

[Turk]

This Verge article actually explains it in more detail, and similar Apple case in the UK:
Google fears France's privacy notification order will ruin its homepage
However, messages like these are not uncommon — Apple was forced to publish a notice on its UK homepage after losing an appeal regarding Samsung tablet design.
http://www.theverge.com/2014/2/7/5390008/google-france-privacy-notification-homepage-order

[ffi]

Ridiculous this fine but hey it's communist France. Google should be able to damn well everything with your data if you agree with their terms of service, if you disagree with the tos, don't use Google, it's that simple.

[flitox]

communist france hahaha you also forgot about the jews too i think. cuz it is well known they are always going together.

where is the world going if the richs cant use their laws & tricks to fuck the system they create. oh yeah, i fogot, only the dumb poors were supposed to get fucked by it.

[speedpedal]

Fighting the Fine . . . as too say we were in our rights. eh . . sure.

[Turk]

One of the thousands reason to hate Google and similar others e.g FB:

Google's link to French privacy fine crashes watchdog's site Charles Arthur11 February 2014 00.37 AEST

CNIL fined Google €150,000 over its data policy and demanded that Google.fr link to its site - but then buckled under the weight of traffic

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/feb/10/googles-link-french-privacy-fine-crashes-watchdog-cnil

Edited February 10, 2014 by Turk

[flitox]

Ridiculous this fine but hey it's communist France. Google should be able to damn well everything with your data if you agree with their terms of service, if you disagree with the tos, don't use Google, it's that simple.

hey FFI, has that news reach your dull country???

france communist dictator is visiting commie big chief, AKA 'da big black person dirtying da white house'. they are for sure listening right now to the latest New Stasi Agency report.

if i were you, i would erase myself from this planet surface cuz if you don't, they will do it and it won't be that fun cause you know how upset commies can be when you speak against them