Article 29 WP takes the next step in its Google investigation

By EDRi · March 13, 2013

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Deutsch: [Artikel 29 Gruppe setzt nächsten Ermittlungsschritt in Sachen Google | https://www.unwatched.org/EDRigram_11.5_Artikel_29_Gruppe_setzt_naechsten_Ermittlungsschritt_in_Sachen_Google?pk_campaign=edri&pk_kwd=20130319]

In October 2012, Article 29 Working Party (representing the data
protection authorities (DPAs) of the EU member states) made
recommendations to Google to solve certain deficiencies regarding its
privacy policy. Now the group believes that the company has not taken
the necessary measures to address the highlighted issues and therefore
it is still in non-compliance of Data Protection Directive 95/46/EC.

In the plenary session meeting of 26 February 2013, the EU DPAs decided
to continue their investigations on Google and to take all necessary
actions in their power and according to their competences, under the
coordination of a taskforce led by the French DPA (CNIL).

It appears as if the data protection authorities are no longer willing
to close their eyes to Google’s irregularities.

The DPAs taskforce will meet in the coming weeks and Google will be
invited for a hearing. Some of the issues that could be questioned by
the DPAs include the conditions of Google’s transfer, to application
developers, of personal information of all Android device users having
purchased an application from the “Google Play” app store and the
conditions under which data has been transferred outside the EU, the
lack of response to CNIL’s questions regarding Google’s changes in its
privacy policy or the privacy issues in new projects, such as Google
Glass.

Article 29 Data Protection Working Party Press Release –
Google’s privacy policy: European data protection authorities are
coordinating their enforcement actions (27.02.2013)
http://ec.europa.eu/justice/data-protection/article-29/press-material/press-release/art29_press_material/20130227_pr_google_privacy_policy_en.pdf

Five questions European regulators need to ask Google – and Al Capone
(11.03.2013)
http://www.privacysurgeon.org/blog/incision/five-questions-european-regulators-need-to-ask-google-and-al-capone/

Google’s privacy policy: G29 ready for coordinated enforcement actions
(28.02.2013)
http://www.cnil.fr/english/news-and-events/news/article/googles-privacy-policy-g29-ready-for-coordinated-enforcement-actions/

EDRi-gram: Google needs to improve its privacy practices (24.10.2012)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number10.20/european-dpas-google-privacy-policy