European regulators have asked Google to clarify its new privacy policy and make it easier for users to opt out of it because of concerns that the Web giant may be collecting too much data and holding it for too long.
France’s data protection agency led a European investigation into Google’s new unified privacy policy, which replaces individual policies for its search, email and other services, and regulates how it uses the personal data it collects. The policy allows Google to combine data collected from one person using its disparate services, from Gmail to YouTube. The collection of data is not just limited to people with accounts to Google applications. The company can collect information from anyone who visits a website that has a link to its services – for example, a Google map posting. The French agency said that of the top 500 most-visited sites in France, 90 percent had a link with Google.
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