Google is in the sights of several consumer associations from five European countries, including France.
The organizations have filed a complaint against the American giant with the national authorities for the protection of personal data, the European Bureau of Consumers' Unions (BEUC) announced on Thursday.
These associations (also based in Greece, Norway, the Czech Republic and Slovenia) accuse Google of inciting users to "allow extensive and invasive processing" of their personal data when creating their account, in violation of the General Data Protection Regulation. data (GDPR) European.
Organizations in three other countries (Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden) have written about this to their national regulators, and the German organization VZBV has sent a warning letter to Google, according to BEUC.
When you create your @Google account, it takes you on a #FastTrackToSurveillance instead of giving you data privacy by default.
The @UFCquechoisir forwards a complaint to the @CNIL as part of an action with the @beuc
👉https://t.co/9qZa0QIjzu pic.twitter.com/xYt75YrGG9
– UFC-Que Choisir (@UFCquechoisir) June 30, 2022
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“A long process and unclear options”
When creating a Google Account, "one step is all it takes to authorize Google to monitor and operate everything you do.
If you want to benefit from the privacy-first settings, you face a long process and unclear and confusing options,” said BEUC Deputy Director General Ursula Pachl.
“Privacy should be the default and easiest choice for consumers,” she insisted.
BEUC underlines that consumers are sometimes obliged to create a Google account, for example when they buy a smartphone using the Android system, which concerns almost 7 out of 10 devices in the world, if they want to download applications from Google Play Store.
The French association UFC-Que Choisir indicated that, like its European counterparts, it had "received numerous reports attesting to breaches" by Google in the application of the GDPR and forwarded a user's complaint to the Commission Informatique et Libertés (Cnil ).
Google, on the other hand, ensures that the options offered to users when they create an account “are clearly presented and easy to understand”.
“We have developed them based on extensive research findings, and guidelines from data protection authorities, as well as feedback from user testing,” a spokesperson said in a statement.
“We are committed to making those choices simple and clear,” he added.
In France, Google was sentenced in December 2021 by the Cnil, data protection policeman, to a fine of 150 million euros for its practices in terms of “cookies”, these digital tracers used in particular for targeted advertising.
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