Google’s unified privacy policy ignites another round of investigations from EU regulators

Europe sure does love its investigations.

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When Google streamlined its privacy policy last year, it got the attention of regulators like France’s National Commission for Computing and Civil Liberties (CNIL), which investigated Google over the new policy and recommended some changes. (The biggest problem? Google gives users “incomplete or approximate information” about what data it collects.)

Now, CNIL has finished its investigation and says that Google has failed to fix anything. As a result, the watchdog has recommended that member states of the EU start their own investigations into Google’s new privacy policy, all of which could result in some hefty fines for the company.

“It is now up to each national data protection authority to carry out further investigations according to the provisions of its national law transposing European legislation,” CNIL said.

The timing of the news is interesting, as Google yesterday confirmed that privacy director Alma Whitten is stepping down after three years on the job. As we pointed out then,Whitten’s tenure has been a tough one, and if the latest EU investigation is any indication, her successor, Lawrence You, won’t have it much easier.

Google, of course, is no stranger to either fines or investigations. As Google continues to grow, so, too does the opposition to how it handles user data. Mr. You has quite a job ahead of him.

Photo background: France/Shutterstock