Europe urges Google to change its privacy rules. The European data privacy regulators bring accusations of not respecting the European privacy laws. It is not the first time this issue has come up. The first time was in 2012, when Google used its users’ data in more of their released products, such as YouTube, the social network Google+, Gmail, Google Maps and Android. The problem was the lack of control users were given in the processing of their personal information. Therefore, once again, Google is being urged to change its privacy policy, in order not to breach the European rules. It has not been accused of acting illegally, however it has been accused of not providing sufficient details regarding data protection. It is stated that Google should clearly state what kind of information it collects from its users and also what that information is used for. In turn, users should be able to choose whether they wish their information to be used on specific products owned by Google. Google has said that they were actually discussing and explaining the privacy policy changes with the European regulators.
In March 2014, Google has indeed made some changes, but they were not enough for the Europeans: “It has made some changes but our investigation won’t end until we believe it is fully compliant,” said a spokesman for ICO (UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office). Larry Page, the executive chief of the multinational corporation was addressed a letter, buy the European Protection Working Party, stating the following: “Google must meet its obligations with respect to the European and national data protection legal frameworks and has to determine the means to achieve these legal requirements.”
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In January 2014, the multinational corporation was fined with 150,000 euros by France, for failing to comply with its privacy policy rules. Similar investigations have been launched against Google in Italy, Germany, Britain, Netherlands and Spain. Anna Fielder, consumer rights advocate and chairwoman at Privacy International stated the following: “The guidelines are fundamental basics that Google should have implemented years ago, and the weakness of the language used in framing this will mean Google will do nothing to comply […] These guidelines are doing nothing more than stating the obvious, and it is shameful that it took the Article 29 Working Party two years to come up with something that Google should already have been complying with.”