French regulators will fine Google for not complying with the nation's privacy policies, despite being given an extended deadline of three-months.
Google Inc. finds itself in hot waters again for failing to comply with French privacy demands, despite a three-month extended deadline given by the national authorities. The Paris-based Commission Nationale de l'informatique et des libertés (CNIL), an independent data protection commission, Friday released a report detailing Google's failure to make necessary changes to its privacy policies as demanded by the French government.
Th CNIL may impose a hefty fine on Google for its failure to modify its privacy policy within the given deadline. Google faces a maximum fine of €150,000 (about $198,300) for a first-time offense , which can be doubled upon repetition of the offense.
Google and European regulators have been at constant loggerheads about the web giant's revised privacy policy that went into effect in 2012. France took the lead in acting against Google's new policy, which utilizes restricted personal data for its targeted advertising. The French regulator asked Google to seek user's consent before processing personal data for its purpose.
Google, however, declined saying: "Our privacy policy respects European law and allows us to create simpler, more effective services. We have engaged fully with the CNIL throughout this process, and we'll continue to do so going forward."
The UK, Germany, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands are conducting similar investigation against the web giant that could potentially lead to fines. Google's wide international market is at stake as the European Union is proposing a fine of up to 2 percent of the web giant's international revenue, according to a Financial Times report.
Google had to sign over a hefty check of $22.5 million to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission as a fine for bypassing security settings in Apple's Safari browser in order to collect internet user data for its targeted advertising.
