France's Data Protection agency issues their maximum monetary penalty to Google

http://www.cnil.fr/english/news-and-events/news/article/the-cnils-sanctions-committee-issues-a-150-000-EUR-monetary-penalty-to-google-inc/

by hugoroy • 13 years ago

33 40 13 years ago

cnil.fr

junto• 13 years ago

€150,000 is a drop in Google's ocean.

Better would be to fine any public company a percentage of their market cap or something comparative that matches the fine to the size of the company.

That would provide a true penalty that discourages large multi-nationals from abusing local laws.

Gmo• 13 years ago

They did with what they had available as a tool : By law, they can't fine more than 150 000 euros ...

I agree (and I'm pretty sure the CNIL agrees) it's not enough.

greenyoda• 13 years ago

In US dollars, roughly $200,000. This action probably cost the French government more in bureaucrats' salaries than it got from Google.

If the fines are this small, it's pretty clear that the legislators who passed this law were not interested in creating a serious deterrent.

atmosx• 13 years ago

It's possible that they didn't knew what they were after... Also we should not underestimate the power of stupidity, in all ranks of society.

moomin• 13 years ago

You could charge Google that a day and they wouldn't care.

chestnut-tree• 13 years ago

"€150,000 is a drop in Google's ocean"

An even more useless measure against Google was made earlier last year (2013) by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) in the UK (a data privacy body).

Google, having wrongly collected wi-fi data during its Street View activities, was asked to delete the private data it had collected. It failed to do so, prompting the ICO to give them additional days to comply with deletion but no fine. [1]

Google probably have an entire department of corporate lawyers zealously protecting their interests, yet despite being instructed by an official body to delete private data, they "accidentally" retained the discs containing the additional private data. These are not the actions of a compnay that takes privacy seriously. And that is unlikely to change until official authorities sufficiently hold Google to account for their privacy transgressions.

[1] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23002166

praptak• 13 years ago

percentage of their market cap or something comparative

The income from the local market comes to mind, as this is realistically the piece of the cake that the local government has some control over.

olivier1664• 13 years ago

For me, Google loses a part of its "Don't be evil" image by being sanctioned by the CNIL.

As a French, I see the CNIL as some kind of Superman of the citizens rights. When Superman fight against someone, this someone is probably evil.

M2Ys4U2• 13 years ago

That's what the upcoming EU Data Protection Regulation states. I believe it's around 8% of global profits.

It's cleared the European Parliament and is currently being stymied in the Council (the body made up of ministers from EU member states)

eonil• 13 years ago

Oh I don't know how it is a penalty.

VladRussian2• 13 years ago

it doesn't even come to close to the "cost of business".

nl• 13 years ago

Google's right to fight these charges. Things like the EU cookie directive are stupid laws that allow legislators to pretend to be doing something but do nothing beyond making websites less user friendly.

twelvechairs• 13 years ago

Which of the four requirements listed do you object to?

patrickaljord3• 13 years ago

All of them. This is outrageous. Nobody is forced to use Google and their privacy policy is Google to decide and their users to accept or not, no government intervention is needed. The only party that should be fined is the French government for spying on its citizens without their consent and with total disregard for the citizen privacy rights using the French version of the prism program.

mike_hearn2• 13 years ago

Which of the four "requirements" are precise enough to realistically be laws? They appear to boil down to opinions of some random people on a committee, that's why they contain language like "Google did not do enough" - well, what would be enough? Every single Google account holder was emailed in the runup to the change and there were banners on all the websites for weeks or longer, if I remember correctly. The notification effort was huge.

gress5• 13 years ago

This has only a little to do with the cookie directive which I agree is stupid. Why are you using this as a straw man to defend google?

JohnTHaller3• 13 years ago

It's one of the points mentioned in the report on Google. It's one of the reasons they are being fined. And the cookie directive is an incredibly stupid idea floated by people who don't understand technology.

pessimizer• 13 years ago

That would be a very harsh penalty for me. I'm not sure if my dry cleaner would survive a fine like that either, but I'm not sure about their cash reserves.

coldcode• 13 years ago

Let them search cake is likely the response.

Nanzikambe• 13 years ago

Fixed fines are silly, make it a percentage of revenue or profit. Give them a real incentive to change.

This sort of thing is done with speeding fines in several countries (link: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/295905?tp=1)

ronaldx• 13 years ago

Fixed fines are silly, make it a percentage of revenue or profit. Give them a real incentive to change.

What do you think Google's claimed revenue/profit in France would be, in that case?

outside1234• 13 years ago

holy cow, that's not even 3 people's salary. who thinks that's going to be effective?

hugoroy2• 13 years ago

Just a note: 150,000€ is indeed the maximum penaltly allowed by law for this, see http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichTexteArticle.do;jsession...

eximius• 13 years ago

Frankly, I'm not sure why Google puts up with France's shit anyway. I would have thrown my hands up with that news snippet thing and simply stopped using the news snippets or listing those news sites in France. After those sites saw a massive drop in traffic, I'm sure they'd leave Google alone. For a little while, at least.

weddpros2• 13 years ago

How much damage was caused by Google? What amount($) of damage? Did citizens complain in court? Who was hurt? Is this punishment "just in case" Google becomes Evil? In contrast, governments have a proven track record in this domain, and the french gov just passed new laws against online privacy that even the NSA wouldn't dare dream of. Guess what? People talk about Google, not about these laws.

M2Ys4U2• 13 years ago

You generally don't sue to protect these rights, you complain to the data protection authority.

weddpros2• 13 years ago

Google is no evil. They don't misuse data. But they got fined.

Spammers all around the world are evil. They misuse data. The CNIL should fight them. Governments are evil. They collect and misuse data. The CNIL should protect us.

But the CNIL doesn't. It just wastes public money. They go after Google because it's so easy. The government needs a get-rich-fast scheme: CNIL sues Google.

They're not here to make things better or protect us. They just "do their job" but they do it in the most stupid way.

lispm• 13 years ago

EU: next time when you make a law, allow a penalty of 150,000,000 Euro for starters. After repeated violations increase to 1,500,000,000 . Double each year. Then Google will listen.

France's Data Protection agency issues their maximum monetary penalty to Google

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