Back in 2012, Google updated their policy in which they decided to share user data across Google’s own range of services that it provided to the public. Unfortunately it seems that over in the Netherlands, the Dutch authorities have deemed that this act of sharing user data is illegal, with the Dutch Data Protection Authority claiming that Google does not “properly inform users which personal data the company collects and combines, and for what purposes,” as stated in their press release. The authorities are claiming that Google is in the wrong but at the same time don’t have any immediate plans to punish Google over this.
Google however does not seem to think that they are in the wrong, stating that their privacy policy actually respects the European law, with Google releasing a statement to Computer World saying, “We have engaged fully with the Dutch DPA throughout this process and will continue to do so going forward.” Google is expected to attend a hearing in which they will face the DPA’s decision and also possibly collaborate on how better to proceed with these issues. This is not the first time that Google has been under fire for these new policies, as the French data protection authority have also launched a similar investigation of their own in which Google could possibly be fined €150,000.