French Data Protection Regulator Queries Google

Google has been asked to respond to numerous issues relating to the changes to its privacy policies by French data protection regulators, as concerns over the amendments refuse to die down.

The National Commission for Computing and Civil Liberties (CNIL), which is leading the European Commission’s Article 29 Working Party investigation into the changes, has issued Google a questionnaire detailing 69 points they wanted answered.

The CNIL has given Google a deadline of 5 April to respond.

These questions relate to issues such as how, if at all, Google intended to respond to users’ concerns with the changes, and if users will definitely be able to delete their Google profiles and all the data associated with them.

A Google spokesperson confirmed the firm had received the questionnaire and said it stood by previous claims the changes it introduced conform to all necessary laws.

“We have received the letter from the CNIL and we will respond in due course. We are confident that our new simple, clear and transparent privacy policy respects all European data protection laws and principles,” the spokesperson said.

“It provides all the information required in Articles 10 and 11 of the directive, plus much additional information, and it follows the guidelines published by the Article 29 Working Party in 2004.”

The CNIL had warned Google it thought the changes it was making to its privacy policies may have been illegal under European Union (EU) law. It urged Google to postpone the changes, but the firm ignored this.

The changes have raised the ire of a number of privacy campaigners, with one even taking the firm to the small claims court to cover the cost of moving from the Android platform to another service, claiming the changes breached the original contract he had with Google.

This article was originally published on V3.