Paris-based Commission Nationale de l'informatique et des libertés (CNIL) has handed down a 150,000 Euros ($204,000) fine to Google for ignoring its three-month deadline to modify its privacy policy that violates the nation's law.
Google, the world's largest search giant, has found new ways to reach consumers and generate good revenues through targeted advertisement. But the data collection methods for its effective advertisement practices have not been favored in most countries, with some even issuing fines for the act. Google has found itself in hot waters in Europe for collating personal data from various cloud services. French regulators found Google's renewed privacy law in 2012 violated the nation's law and granted a three-month deadline to the company to make necessary modifications.
Google, however, did not act upon France's data protection watchdog, CNIL. As a result the regulators have handed down a 150,000 Euros ($204,000) fine to Google. In addition to the imposed fine, Google is required to post a statement of being notified of the ruling on Google.fr homepage for 48 hours within eight days.
"The company does not sufficiently inform its users of the conditions in which their personal data are processed, nor of the purposes of this processing," CNIL said in a statement, RT News reports.
The issued fine is the highest that has been given by the Committee till now, but still seems modest compared to Google's huge revenues. But the high fine only proves the seriousness of the privacy committed done by the company.
Last month, the Spanish agency for data protection issued a $1.23 million (900,000 Euros) fine, against Google, which was the first from any European country, for breaching the nation's privacy policy. Other European countries including Germany, Britain, Italy and the Netherlands have also been looking into Google's practices.
