By Kelly Faircloth 5/24/12 8:19am

THE GOOG

Ms. Falque-Pierrotin (cnil.fr)

Now Google Is Pissing Off the French Authorities

Mere weeks after being slapped with a $25,000 fine from America’s own F.C.C., Google is antagonizing yet another government body with its tight-lipped, unhelpful responses.

All Things D reports that France’s C.N.I.L., the data protection organization investigating the company’s privacy policies on behalf of the EU, is none too pleased with the company right now. Whatever answers Google does provide are often “incomplete or approximate,” and that simply won’t do.

The C.N.I.L. sent Google a questionaire back in March; the company returned the questionaire in April. Representatives from the two organizations have also met in person. And yet, the French still don’t have the information they want. And so now C.N.I.L. head Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin has taken to the Internet with a chiding public letter for CEO Larry Page. She writes:  Read More

By Steve Huff 2/29/12 10:11am

Google

Even ‘Trained Professionals’ Don’t Know What Google Has On You

Google is prepping its mass merge of 60 privacy policies, which will change user terms of service–and the French are nervous about it. C.N.I.L., a French watchdog group charged with protecting data security, has requested the search behemoth hold off. In a letter to Google C.N.I.L. states that it welcomes Google’s “large campaign to inform its users” about the policy change, adding that the “initiative is very useful to increase internet users’ awareness of privacy online. “

After analyzing Google’s plan, however, C.N.I.L. has some concerns: Read More