E.U. Calling For Much Larger Fines For Companies Breaching Privacy Law

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E.U. Calling For Much Larger Fines For Companies Breaching Privacy Law

engine

4:07 pm on Jan 21, 2014 (gmt 0)

The EU's justice commissioner has called for bigger fines for companies that breach European data privacy laws.

Viviane Reding dismissed recent fines for Google as "pocket money" and said the firm would have had to pay $1bn under her plans for privacy failings.

Ms Reding said such punishments were necessary to ensure firms took the use of personal data seriously.

And she questioned how Google was able to take so long to getting round to changing its policy.

"Is it surprising to anyone that two whole years after the case emerged, it is still unclear whether Google will amend its privacy policy or not?" she said in a speech.E.U. Calling For Much Larger Fines For Companies Breaching Privacy Laws [bbc.co.uk]

Earlier stories

E.U. Says Google Must Come Up With More Concessions Over Anti-Trust Investigations [webmasterworld.com]

Google's Global Privacy Counsel Says EU Privacy Laws "Flawed" [webmasterworld.com]

superclown2

4:24 pm on Jan 21, 2014 (gmt 0)

Google's methods of collecting personal data without express permission is illegal in the EU. Sadly, typical of the EU, the Privacy Commissioner has reached the end of his contract and none of the current applicants have been judged sufficiently experienced to take his place.

However the new directive on online privacy which is slowly wending it's way through the system is even tighter than the present standards so the fines should be coming thick and furious in the future, on a European rather than a country level. A suggested level that is being considered is 2% of global turnover.

Nemesis will come, in due course. Google is not the only company, of course, that could fall foul of this issue.