After it was found that Google wasn’t complying with the French regulators privacy terms and conditions, the search engine giant has been forced to advertise £125,000 fine on its French homepage.
The French National Commission on Information and Liberty (CNIL) ordered on Friday that the Internet giant will have to display a notice on its French home page acknowledging that it has contravened French government’s privacy laws and that it has been fined over for how it secretly tracked and stored Gmail, Google+ and YouTube user information.
The court ordered that Google must post the penalty notice in a minimum of 13 point font and in the Arial typeface and that the message has to be live on the French homepage for at least 48 hours located just beneath the search button.
This is the second blow for Google from the French authorities for the search giant. Earlier this week, the company was hit with a €1 billion tax bill from the French tax authorities following an investigation into the online giant’s accounts.
The Silicon Valley firm is appealing decision by the Commission (CNIL) but at the mean time has also announced that that it will post the order on its front-page. The appeal could take around six months’ time to get processed.
Google spokesman, in an official statement, said: “We’ve engaged fully with the CNIL throughout this process to explain our privacy policy and how it allows us to create simpler, more effective services”.
“We will comply with the order to post the notice, but we’ll also continue with our appeal before the Conseil d’Etat”.
Other countries including Britain, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain have also decided to open similar privacy breach cases against Google, accusing the search giant of violating their local laws on protecting citizens’ personal data.
