French Agency Fines Google For Not Complying With Privacy Laws

France's privacy watchdog, the Commission Nationale de L'Informatique et des Libertes, has fined Google since the Internet giant's policies of saving and sharing user data does not conform with the country's privacy laws. This enforcement comes after European data protection authorities investigated a privacy policy change by Google in 2012.

Back in June, CNIL had ordered Google to comply with France's data protection laws, giving the American Internet giant a deadline of three months. However, Google had not made the required changes on time since it believed that French data protection laws did not apply to users of certain Google services in France, according to CNIL.

How did the agency respond? According to a statement, "the chair of the CNIL will now designate a rapporteur for the purpose of initiating a formal procedure for imposing sanctions, according to the provisions laid down in the French data protection law," CNIL said. The search giant risks being fined up to $202,562(Rs. 1,26,62,150), or €300,000 (Rs. 2,53,48,440) in the event of a repeat offense. Things could get so bad for the company that it could be banned from processing personal data in certain ways for up to three months.

It is worth noting that France isn't the only country that is in disagreement with the Internet giant's policies. Google is facing probes across Europe over privacy policies for more than 60 of its products since last year.

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