France’s data protection regulator has threatened to take action against Google if it fails to comply with the country’s privacy policies.
The search engine firm has not complied with the policy of Commission nationale de l’informatique et des libertés (CNIL) within a three-month time limit, and the regulator may decide to commence a formal sanction process, which could result in a fine for the US company of up to $205,000.
Google has also been asked to notify its French web users on their personal data processing, as well as to make it clear how long it can store the data for.
The tech giant was also asked to fairly collect and process passive users’ data, and to notify users and seek permission before storing cookies in their terminal.
CNIL said in a statement that on the last day of the three-month time period given to Google, the firm contested the regulator’s reasoning as well as the applicability of French data protection laws to the services used by residents in France.
"Therefore, it has not implemented the requested changes," CNIL said.
"In this context, the chair of CNIL will now designate a rapporteur for the purpose of initiating a formal procedure for imposing sanctions."
The latest move by France comes after Google introduced a new privacy policy in 2012 that tracks user activity across its search engine, Gmail, the Google+ social networking platform as well as YouTube.
