Google Urged To Change Privacy Rules

European data privacy regulators have put renewed pressure on Google
to alter its privacy policy.

It follows changes to the policy two years ago which regulators felt
breached European rules.

Among other things, it says Google must tell users exactly what data
is collected and with whom it is shared.

Google said it was working with regulators to "explain its privacy
policy changes".

The dispute has been running since March 2012 when Google consolidated
its 60 privacy policies into one and started combining data from
YouTube, Gmail and Google Maps.

Users were given no means to opt out of the changes.

Although Google has not been directly accused of acting illegally, it
has been accused of providing "incomplete and approximate" details
raising "deep concerns about data protection and the respect of the
European law".

Google did make some changes to its privacy policy in March this year,
linking to individual services from its main privacy document.

"It has made some changes but our investigation won't end until we
believe it is fully compliant," said a spokesman for the UK's
information commissioner's office (ICO).

In a letter addressed to Google's chief executive Larry Page, the
European Union's data protection working party wrote: "Google must
meet its obligations with respect to the European and national data
protection legal frameworks and has to determine the means to achieve
these legal requirements."

A spokesman for Google told the Reuters news agency that it was
looking forward to discussing the new guidelines.

"We have worked with different data protection authorities across
Europe to explain our privacy policies," he said.