Google Faced Fines in Netherlands

[RoadWarrior]

The authorities of the Netherlands may fine Google about €15 million over Internet privacy breaches. It turned out that Google is failing to abide by the data protection law of the country by collecting users’ private data including browsing history and location for targeting advertisement.

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The Dutch Data Protection Authority (DPA) has given the tech giant two months to fix the way it handles the information collected from individual users of its services. Besides Netherlands, the company has also been under investigation in the UK, Spain, Germany, France, and Italy over the way it handles user information after enforcing new company guidelines 2 years ago.

The tech giant collects information from search engine queries, users’ emails, intermediary websites tracking or “cookies”, location information and even YouTube browsing in order to target users with ads in future. The Dutch regulator claims such data collection is taking place without Google adequately informing the Internet users in advance. Moreover, Google doesn’t ask for consent, which is a violation of the country’s legislation.

According to DPA’s head, the practices of the tech giant catch the country in an invisible web of their personal details, without telling them or asking their permission. The Data Protection Authority ordered Google to start informing Internet users of its actions and to ask for consent. Otherwise, the company would face fines of up to €15 million.

In response, Google said it was very disappointed with the order of the Dutch regulator, because the tech giant had already made a number of changes to its privacy policy when trying to address DPA’s concerns. Nevertheless, Google has already introduces some proposals for further changes in its policy to the group of EU data protection authorities.