Google’s privacy policy to take effect March 1 despite warnings

PanARMENIAN.Net - Internet giant Google has gone ahead with its new privacy policy despite warnings from the EU that it might violate European law, BBC reports.

The change means private data collected by one Google service can be shared with its other platforms including YouTube, Gmail and Blogger. Google said the new set-up would enable it to tailor search results better.

But data regulators in France have cast doubt on the legality of the move and launched a Europe-wide investigation.

Google has merged 60 guidelines for its individual sites into a single policy for all of its services. France's privacy watchdog CNIL wrote to Google earlier this week, urging a "pause" in rolling out the revised policy.

"The CNIL and EU data authorities are deeply concerned about the combination of personal data across services," the regulator wrote. "They have strong doubts about the lawfulness and fairness of such processing, and its compliance with European data protection legislation."

In response, Google's global privacy counsel Peter Fleischer said he was happy to answer any concerns CNIL had.

"As we've said several times over the past week, while our privacy policies will change on March 1, our commitment to our privacy principles is as strong as ever," Fleischer wrote in a blog post.

The company rejected the regulator's request to hold off on making the changes. Users are being moved on to the new single policy shortly after midnight on March 1, local time.