France's data protection http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/data-protection watchdog, the CNIL, told Google in a letter dated 27 February that it would lead a Europe-wide investigation of the policy, which involves Google pooling the data on individual users gathered via any of its sites - search, YouTube, Gmail, Google+ and others - allowing it to tailor search results, target users with advertising and make other uses of the information.
Google said in January it was simplifying its privacy rules, consolidating 60 policies into a single one, and has promoted it as a positive change. Users cannot opt out of the new policy if they want to continue using Google's services.
“The CNIL and EU data authorities are deeply concerned about the combination of personal data across services: they have strong doubts about the lawfulness and fairness of such processing and its compliance with European data protection legislation,” the French regulator wrote to Google.
Google has put the changes into effect from Thursday 1 March and has rebuffed two requests from European regulators for a delay.
The tussle over data privacy comes at a delicate time for Google, whose business model has become to give away free search, email and other services while making money by selling user-targeted advertising.
Google's new privacy policy follows closely on a European commission http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/european-commission move to overhaul its 17-year-old data protection rules in favour of more stringent requirements.
Under the proposed new EU rules, companies like Google, Facebook and Yahoo would have to ask users for permission to store and sell their data to other businesses, such as advertisers, which is the source of almost all their income.
Internet http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/internet users could also ask for their data to be deleted from websites for good, the so-called “right to be forgotten”.
Policymakers in other countries have also expressed concerns over Google's new privacy policy. Eight US lawmakers sent a letter to Google in late January saying a planned consolidation of user information endangered consumers' privacy.
Japan's trade and industrial ministry warned on Wednesday that Google must follow Japan's privacy law in implementing its new approach. Guardian
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