Google and France are in the limelight again, this time round with France’s data protection watchdog having slapped a 150,000 Euro fine on Google. The reason behind this fine? Apparently, Google has not complied with a three-month ultimatum that was issued some time ago in order to bring its practices on tracking and storing user information to be aligned with local law. The privacy watchdog is called CNIL, and it has also asked Google to post this particular decision on its google.fr homepage for 48 hours, where it must be done within eight days of being officially notified of the ruling.
This is not the first time that Google has been fined in France, and it remains to be seen whether it will be the last, either. The bone of contention is this – there was a new approach to user data that Google kicked off in March a couple of years ago, where it comprised of consolidating its 60 privacy policies into a single one, merging data collected on individual users across its services, where among them include YouTube, Gmail and social network Google+, without giving users a way to opt out. A Google France spokesman has taken note of this decision, and will mull over further action.