Google Fined By French Privacy Regulator 55
First time accepted submitter L-One-L-One writes "Following similar decisions in Spain and the Netherlands, Google was fined 150,000 euros by the French Data Protection authority today for breaching data protection legislation. This sanction follows a long inquiry triggered by Google's decision to change its privacy policy in March 2012. The authority notably considers that the new policy 'does not sufficiently inform its users of the conditions in which their personal data are processed, nor of the purposes of this processing,' and that Google combines 'all the data it collects about its users across all of its services without any legal basis.' While the fine may be barely noticeable for Google, the authority requires the search giant to publish this decision on Google's French homepage, google.fr for 48 hours within the next 8 days."
Not 'chump change' (Score:0, Insightful)
It's irrelevant what the fine is, it could be 100 bucks, it could be 100,000,000 dollars or 10 Billion for all I care, that's irrelevant. What is relevant is that some fucking nonsensical government anywhere in the world is allowed to destroy individual freedom of people like that, by fining individuals for offering services on their terms.
So Google merged privacy policies (which by the way, shouldn't be dictated by any gov't either, it's a personal choice for companies to provide it or not and it's up to the clients to care about those or not) so what? Is any single person in the world a PAYING gmail/youtube/maps/etc client? Even IF somebody is paying for something (maybe) how is it not up to THEM to yell at Google, to sue Google even and maybe to stop using their services?
This entire notion that government has a role in business anywhere in the world is completely out of control and needs to be stopped.
Just a cost of doing business (Score:1, Insightful)
So long as there are no jail terms for execs, and the penalties remain (and they are) a fraction of what they made, Google will keep doing this.
Remember what it says in the Google charter: "First, Be Evil".