Google Changes UK Privacy Policy

Google is to amend its privacy policy in the UK following a recent probe by the nation’s regulators. The UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) released a statement on Friday, announcing that Google will “make further changes to its privacy policy to ensure it meets the requirements of the Data Protection Act,” the law that determines how personal data can be collected and used.

In recent years, Google faced probes over its privacy policies from much of Europe, especially after the introduction of the “right to be forgotten” law. Google’s consolidation of its policy in 2012 was met with dissent across the EU. The next year, Commission Nationale de l’Informatique, France’s privacy watchdog, announced that six European countries would launch “coordinated and simultaneous enforcement actions” as Google “has not implemented any significant compliance measures.”

UK’s ICO launched its own investigation into Google recently, concluding that the company should do more to bring its policies in line with European law. It seems Google has complied, introducing the following amendments:

• Google will enhance the accessibility of its Privacy Policy to ensure that users can easily find information about its privacy practices;
• Google will enhance the disclosures in its Privacy Policy to describe its data processing activities more clearly, including the types and purposes for which it processes user information, a nd to provide users with information to exercise their rights;
• Google will provide clear, unambiguous and comprehensive information regarding data processing, including an exhaustive list of the types of data processed by Google and the purposes for which data is processed;
• Google will provide information to enable individuals to exercise their rights;
• Google will provide user resource covering data processed by Google and the purposes of processing;
• Google will include two provisions of the Google Terms of Service, regarding the processing of email data and the shared endorsement feature, in the text of the Google Privacy Policy;
• Google will add more information to its Privacy Policy about the entities that may collect anonymous identifiers on Google properties and the purposes to which they put that data;
• Google will implement several measures to ensure that passive users are better informed about the processing of their data and that publishers using Google products obtain the necessary consents;
• Google will revise its Privacy Policy to avoid indistinct language where possible;
• Google will enhance its guidance for employees regarding notice and consent requirements;
• Google will ensure, so far as practicable, that the requirements of the first principle are applied equally to all Google products, regardless of which terminal device the Google user is accessing them on, including mobile, tablet, desktop, and new hardware offerings;
• Google has implemented a multi-layered approach to its Privacy Policy and will make additional changes to further enhance the layers;
• Google will launch a redesigned version of Account Settings, which will allow users to find a variety of controls and information more easily, and will more prominently feature the Dashboard at the top level.

The new policy comes into effect in the UK on 30^th June this year.

Source: CNet