Sunday 22 April 2012

The French Data Protection Authority Questions Google On Its Privacy Policy

The French data protection authority, the CNIL (Commission Nationale de l'Informatique et des Libertés), was invited by the Article 29 Working Party (which brings together all the data protection authorities of the European Union) to take the lead in the analysis of Google's new privacy policy, that took effect on 1 March 2012.

On 16 March 2012, the CNIL sent Google a detailed questionnaire on its new confidentiality rules.

In its questionnaire, the CNIL asks Google 69 questions that are meant to clarify the implications the new confidentiality rules will have on the users of Google, whether these users have accounts, or are not authenticated or are simply passive users of Google services on other sites (publicity, measurement of audiences, etc).

Google's answers are supposed to help the European data protection authorities assess the compliance of Google’s services with European law.

The CNIL asked Google to reply to the questionnaire by 5 April 2012.

On 5 April 2012, Google answered the first 24 questions of the 69 questions asked, indicating to the press that it has negotiated a delay for the rest of its answer with the CNIL.

Read the questionnaire: http://www.cnil.fr/fileadmin/documents/La_CNIL/actualite/questionnaire_to_Google-2012-03-16.pdf