The Spanish Agency for Data Protection (AEPD) has recently taken part in a plenary meeting of European authorities for the protection of data (GT29). The group analyses, among other issues, the progress made in national procedures undertaken as part of the Google privacy policy of 2012. In December 2013, the AEPD declared the existence of three serious offences against data protection and fined the company involved 900,000 euros, and also demanded that it adopted the necessary measures to adapt its privacy policy to Spanish regulations.
The AEPD was able to confirm that the company had introduced important modifications involving providing users with information, consent and how to exercise their rights. Some of the measures applied to the company by the Spanish agency are the following:
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A “Personal information and privacy” centre has been set up via the link “My account” for users of a Google account, which offers additional information and options for administering information gathered by Google.
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A campaign has been launched to remind users on-line when he / she intends to use Google services that they must access privacy-related information and establish configuration parameters.
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The user is able to selectively disconnect services which were previously activated necessarily and which contained data corresponding to the user’s activity, and there will be the possibility of eliminating such an account completely.
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Limiting the use of several accounts by the same user is no longer applicable. The user can now have a number of these and avoid any leakage of data to the others.
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The company has included a form for the application of “the right to forget”, a link available to contact the company and access the tools to be able to consult previous activities.
Google has committed itself to adopt a series of additional improvements specifically requested by the AEPD, such as increasing the list of services with privacy policies and expand on the privacy-reminder campaign so that it applies to other Google services and Android users.
Spanish Agency for Data Protection: Press release
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