E.U. To Pressurise Google Over Privacy Policy: May Have Global Impact

[engine]

Google will be told on Tuesday to unravel the controversial changes introduced in March to its European privacy policy, legal sources have told the Guardian.

The French data protection commissioner, the CNIL, will be holding a press conference on Tuesday to announce the results of its deliberations together with the data protection chiefs of the other European Union countries.

As exclusively revealed by the Guardian last week, they have determined that Google's changes breached EU law because they did not give users any chance to opt out of the changes.E.U. To Pressurise Google Over Privacy Policy: May Have Global Impact [guardian.co.uk]

Google declined to comment on the forthcoming CNIL report, but said: "We are confident that our privacy notices respect the requirements of European data protection laws."

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

Another report on the BBC website, [bbc.co.uk...]

[Leosghost]

update..CNIL are really not happy, and are specific about what must change in Google privacy policy and the way it is applied..
[bbc.co.uk...]

[superclown2]

The unstoppable force is about to hit the immovable object. Interesting times ahead.

[Panthro]

Pressurise. You sure about that?

[incrediBILL]

People had, and still have, the ultimate opt-out: simply don't use it.

However, common sense doesn't prevail when deep pockets are around just waiting to pay fines and penalties.

[xcoder]

People had, and still have, the ultimate opt-out: simply don't use it.

This is no longer an option for Joe public. They are horde and *forced* to use goog whether they know/want it or not.

Goog is almost on every website they visit, goog also power most other search engines out there. Not to mention the wild spread of the android op, goog even managed to creep into Joe public TVs.

Unless you are an IT specialist and know exactly where to look for and what to block, "Opting out" of goog is simply impossible at this stage ...

[incrediBILL]

Goog is almost on every website they visit

So?

A simple ad blocker or NoScript disables AdSense and GA and all the rest which many already use. Again, common sense does not prevail as the technology to stop their intrusions, for those that care, has always been easy to access, implement and use.

There was never any need for legislation, as technology already covered all the bases, except as an excuse to collect fines where no laws were previously available.

Unless you are an IT specialist and know exactly where to look for and what to block, "Opting out" of goog is simply impossible at this stage ...

Hardly. It's trivial and I know a lot of barely computer literates that block cookies and scripts. Just like my mom tells her friends, that tell their friends, it quickly spreads.

[SevenCubed]

"Opting out" is simply impossible at that stage unless you are an IT specialist...

A couple days ago I had to visit google to check my site in SERPs, something I hadn't done in well over a year. I needed to make use of the display 100 results at a time. It took me about 5 minutes to open enough of my browser to allow me to accept cookies from them to save the preference. I have so many layers implemented to keep them out that I couldn't remember which ones were over-riding others -- it's madness. There's no way Joe public can get away from them.

[xcoder]

A simple ad blocker or NoScript disables AdSense and GA and all the rest which many already use.

Sure, plenty of effective ad blockers around for smartphones and smart TVs...

Joe public can not opt out of goog even if they wanted or knew how. Resistance is moot...goog made sure of that.

[incrediBILL]

Sure, plenty of ad blockers around for smartphones and smart TVs...

I don't mind valid criticism but let's keep the facts straight and not muddy the issues with broad sweeping generalities that aren't true. Not sure about the TVs but there are ad blockers for smartphones, I have them. You can get ad blockers for the browser or get ad blockers that block mobile ads embedded in apps.

The ad blockers are easily found in Google Play. The only issue is the free ones typically require a rooted phone and while the paid ones may not require rooting the phone they also may not be 100% either. To be truly ad free on Android may require rooting which probably voids the warranty on the device, and yes, Joe public roots Android devices all the time.

However, the topic isn't ad blocking, it's about Google's Privacy Policies. If you want to start another thread about the effectiveness of ad blocking vs. Google tracking, I'm game, kick it off.

FWIW. I truly find it hard to take any country seriously about privacy concerns when they lead the world in surveillance cameras everywhere that are armed with facial recognition.

But I digress.

[edited by: incrediBILL at 12:22 am (utc) on Oct 17, 2012]

[xcoder]

^ ads are only a small part in the goog arsenal. Simply blocking ads is not enough. The whole android op system is one hell of a goog beacon... how do you block that?

The ad blockers are easily found in Google Play.

I wouldn't recommend installing any on a phone. 99.9% Spyware galore...

[superclown2]

A simple ad blocker or NoScript disables AdSense and GA and all the rest which many already use. Again, common sense does not prevail as the technology to stop their intrusions, for those that care, has always been easy to access, implement and use.

You and I know how to do this. The average user out there just about knows how to switch a computer on. What chance have they got against the brains of a company that 'accidentally' breaks privacy laws so often?

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

I always find it strange that so many IT literate people cannot accept that there are many millions of people who use PCs without knowing anything about security other than that they need an AV package.

They do exist ... in their millions ... and that is who Google et al target.

[webindia123]

As in status quo, does it matter to google; when major of its revenues are coming from US/UK market.

And this doesn't seem to change in near future.