France's data
protection watchdog has said it will take action against US giant Google for
failing to comply with national privacy guidelines.
The issue of data
protection has gathered steam worldwide following revelations by Edward
Snowden, a former contractor with the National Security Agency, that the US had
a vast, secret programme called PRISM to monitor Internet users.
France's National
Commission on Computing and Freedom (CNIL) said that Google had failed to
comply with data protection guidelines within a three-month deadline and said
it would begin a formal sanction procedure, under which the US giant could be
fined up to 150,000 euros ($205,000).
CNIL had asked
Google to inform web users in France on how it processes their personal data
and to define exactly how long they can store the information.
It had also
requested that the US giant obtain users' permission before storing cookies on
their computers, referring to files that track netizens and allow companies to
target them with tailored commercials.
In its response,
Google made no mention of any challenge to CNIL's reasoning and maintained it
respects European law.
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