Dutch watchdogs are through with a seven-month long investigation and announced Thursday that Google has been violating Dutch data protection law since it renewed the privacy policy last year.
The Dutch Data Protection Authority has concluded a seven-month investigation and found that Google is in breach of the country's privacy law. The web giant has found itself in deep waters with its practice of combining personal data from various cloud services, which is in violation of a policy change that went in to effect last year. Six European countries including Netherlands have been investigating Google's new privacy policy, though fines that can typically be imposed are modest.
Google has been asked by the Dutch authority to join a hearing, to discuss concerns and finalize action or fines. Google's cloud services include leading internet connected services YouTube, Gmail, and Google search engine. Google stores users' data on its "Cloud" storage service, which is via Internet and not on-site. This has raised concerns among European authorities as users have little control over their personal information.
Google was on fire after CIA agent Edward Snowden leaked classified documents that showed the U.S. intelligence services have access to U.S. based cloud services.
"Google spins an invisible web of our personal data, without consent," Jacob Kohnstamm, the chairman of the DPA said in a statement, according to Washington Post. "That is forbidden by law."
In addition, DPA found that Google does not "inform users about the combining of their personal data from all these different services" and carrying out such practices just by asking users to access general terms of service is unacceptable.
Google, on the other hand, says that the company's privacy policy "respects European law and allows us to create simpler, more effective services."
Other European countries that are looking into Google's privacy policy include France, Spain, Germany, Britain and Italy.
