Google asked to rewrite privacy policy in Europe before September 20

Google has been granted time until September 20 to rewrite its privacy policy in Europe or face legal sanctions, reports The Guardian. Privacy watchdogs in the UK, Germany and Italy want Google to amend its privacy policy to make it clearer to users as to how it uses the data it collects.

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) in the UK has said that Google’s new privacy policy, which it released in March last year, raises “serious questions” on its compliance with the country’s Data Protection Act. Last month, the company received similar complaints from privacy watchdogs in France and Spain. 

Been asked to update privacy policy in Europe

The body feels that Google does not provide sufficient information to its customers in the UK as to how their data will be used across its products. ICO therefore wants Google to rewrite its privacy policy before September 20, with the necessary amends.  

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“Google must now amend their privacy policy to make it more informative for individual service users. Failure to take the necessary action to improve the policies compliance with the Data Protection Act by 20 September will leave the company open to the possibility of formal enforcement action,” ICO has said.

If Google fails to comply with UK’s Data Protection policy, it would leave it open to legal sanctions from ICO. According to the report, ICO can issue undertakings so as to compel organisations to “improve their data protection compliance” or fine of 500,000 euros for “serious breaches” to the Act. 

The topic of data privacy has been under much debate recently. Google CEO Larry Page denied reports that the search giant was providing user data to the PRISM government surveillance programme that was revealed in newspaper reports. In a post on the official Google blog titled “What the…?”, Page said the company did provide the National Security Agency access to email and other personal information transmitted on various online services.

“We have not joined any program that would give the U.S. government—or any other government—direct access to our servers. Indeed, the U.S. government does not have direct access or a “back door” to the information stored in our data centers. We had not heard of a program called PRISM until yesterday,” Page said in a post, co-signed by David Drummond, Google’s Chief Legal Officer.