Germany: Google warned over privacy

The Hamburg Data Protection Authority has warned Google that its user profile activities, which take advantage of ‘connecting’ data gathered across its services, are in violation of local privacy laws.

Google is able to gather rich personal data from its search and mail services as well as YouTube and Google maps – without explicit user consent.  The German watchdog has told Google it needs to change if it is to become compliant – in particular it must gain consent for user profiling – and allow users to control the use of their data.

Source: Techcrunch.