France leads European action over Google breach of privacy

The legal action accelerates a Europe-wide fight against Google over its use of personal data. While the fines threatened are small by the standards of one of the world’s richest companies, the move puts new pressure on Google as it smarts from recent criticism over providing customer data to US government surveillance efforts.

The French agency that regulates information technology says five other European countries are taking similar steps in a staggered offensive against Google’s privacy policy between now and the end of July. The French National Commission on Computing and Freedom (CNIL) said Spain has joined France in the first wave of legal action, and that Britain, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands will join in the coming weeks.

Paris’ formal warning gives the company three months to change its privacy practices, such as specifying to users what it is using personal data for. If not, Google risks a fine of up to 300,000 euros (£256,000) by France, and millions of euros across all six countries.