Google is being asked to pay $1.23 million to the Spanish government to settle privacy policy violation charges.
As imposed by the Spanish Data Protection Agency, or the Agencia Española de Protección de Datos (AEPD), the Internet giant must pay €900,000 ($1.23 million) because Google have not provided sufficient details about its data collection.
The whopping amount is an accumulation of fines from three different violations of the Organic Act on Data Protections (LOPD) specifically collecting data, sharing data, and misinforming users.
The AEPD branded Google’s privacy rules as “indeterminate and unclear.”
However, that was back then. In March 2012, Google adopted a new set of privacy policy where it consolidated about 70 cross-site rules into one, but also changed into a single username and password for all Google’s services like YouTube, Blogger, and Search, instead of having different accounts for each.
The Spanish Agency’s action is requiring the Internet giant to follow and comply with the Spanish data protection law and correct its practices as soon as possible.
According to a Google spokesperson, the company will be studying the Spanish supervisory body’s report to determine the company’s next steps.
“We've engaged fully with the Spanish DPA throughout this process to explain our privacy policy and how it allows us to create simpler, more effective services, and we'll continue to do so,” she said in a statement to PCMag.
Recently, Google failed to settle an antitrust issue with the European government. The probe accused Google of favoring its own product services other than its rival companies.
In November, the Dutch Data Protection Authority (DPA) indicted Google for not informing its users accurately about the personal information it collects and combines, and its purpose.
Among those looking into Google’s privacy policy are data protection agencies in Germany, United Kingdom, and Italy.
