French authorities have shamed Google by forcing the company's landing page in France to show a message confirming it has been fined €150,000 for violating the country's privacy laws.
In an emergency hearing on Thursday, February 6, Google's lawyers tried to block the notice on the landing page arguing that it may cause "irreparable damage" to the website's reputation. However, on Friday, February 7, the court ruled that Google has not proven any urgent danger due to the notice on its webpage. Google had no choice but to accept the court instructions, but the company has appealed the overall ruling.
France's Commissions Nationale de l'Informatique et des Libertés (CNIL) has laid down specific instructions on exactly how the notice will appear on Google France's (google.fr) website. CNIL says that Google should publish the notice "at a size no smaller than 13 points in the font called Arial," in a box that is "centered vertically and horizontally." Moreover, CNIL had even specified the exact colors the Internet giant should use to depict the word "Communiqué" and the rest of the text.
"Communiqué: The sanctions committee of the Commision Nationale de l'Informatique et des Libertés has ordered Google to pay a €150,000 fine for violations of the 'Data-Processing and Freedoms' law. Decision available at the following address: http:www.cnil.fr/linstitution/missions/sanctionner/Google/" says the notice on Google.fr (translated).
The overall case is related to the unified privacy policy that Google implemented in early 2012. The privacy policy merged different policies from Google's services such as Gmail and YouTube.
However, CNIL and data-protection authorities of other European countries found that Google's new privacy policies were not sufficiently clear about what the company does with data and does not give users enough control. On the other hand, Google says that the policy allows it to provide "simpler, more effective services," and complies with European law.
The publication of the notice on Google.fr is ordered to appear for a duration of 48 consecutive hours beginning at 8 a.m. Paris time, on the seventh day after the notification of the current decision, which was Saturday, February 8.
This is not the first time that Google has been put to shame by a country. In 2006, Belgium authorities ordered Google to post an entire ruling against it in relation to a case that involved copyright issues on Google.be. The website had to comply and display the entire ruling for five days.
Google has already been fined in France but the company has also been questioned regarding its privacy policies in other parts of Europe such as the UK, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands.
