PRIVACY
Google violated laws, Dutch watchdog says
A privacy watchdog said Thursday that Google has been breaking Dutch law on personal data protection since it introduced a new privacy policy last year.
Jacob Kohnstamm, chairman of the College for the Protection of Personal Data, said Google’s combining of data from different services, including visits to multiple Web sites, to tailor ads and personalize services such as YouTube “spins an invisible web of our personal information, without our permission, and that is outlawed.”
In a statement, the watchdog said Google “does not adequately inform users about the combining of their personal data from all these different services.” It added that consent, required by Dutch law, for the combining of personal data from different Google services “cannot be obtained by accepting general [privacy] terms of service.”
Google spokesman Al Verney said the company’s privacy policy “respects European law and allows us to create simpler, more effective services.”
Kohnstamm’s organization said it has invited Google to a hearing, after which the watchdog will decide on possible enforcement action.
The Netherlands is one of six European nations investigating Google’s privacy policy. The others are France, Spain, Germany, Britain and Italy.
Spain’s Data Protection Agency said in June that it had initiated sanctions proceedings after initial investigations showed that Google Spain and Google Inc. may be committing six infractions of the country’s data protection law. It said the company could also face fines of up to $408,000.
— Associated Press
MORTGAGES
Britain to cut back aid for home lending
The Bank of England moved Thursday to head off the risk of a housing bubble in Britain, making a surprise announcement that it would put the brakes on a scheme launched last year to help boost mortgage lending.
The central bank said the Funding for Lending Scheme (FLS) would stop offering banks incentives for mortgage lending and instead be refocused on helping small firms borrow. The news caused shares in house-building firms to tumble.
Britain’s economy and its housing market have staged an unexpectedly strong turnaround since the FLS was launched by the central bank and the finance ministry in July 2012 in an effort to spur the long-delayed recovery by unblocking credit markets.
“Given the access to credit for households now, .
Google violated laws, Dutch watchdog says
A privacy watchdog said Thursday that Google has been breaking Dutch law on personal data protection since it introduced a new privacy policy last year.
Jacob Kohnstamm, chairman of the College for the Protection of Personal Data, said Google’s combining of data from different services, including visits to multiple Web sites, to tailor ads and personalize services such as YouTube “spins an invisible web of our personal information, without our permission, and that is outlawed.”
In a statement, the watchdog said Google “does not adequately inform users about the combining of their personal data from all these different services.” It added that consent, required by Dutch law, for the combining of personal data from different Google services “cannot be obtained by accepting general [privacy] terms of service.”
Google spokesman Al Verney said the company’s privacy policy “respects European law and allows us to create simpler, more effective services.”
Kohnstamm’s organization said it has invited Google to a hearing, after which the watchdog will decide on possible enforcement action.
The Netherlands is one of six European nations investigating Google’s privacy policy. The others are France, Spain, Germany, Britain and Italy.
Spain’s Data Protection Agency said in June that it had initiated sanctions proceedings after initial investigations showed that Google Spain and Google Inc. may be committing six infractions of the country’s data protection law. It said the company could also face fines of up to $408,000.
— Associated Press
MORTGAGES
Britain to cut back aid for home lending
The Bank of England moved Thursday to head off the risk of a housing bubble in Britain, making a surprise announcement that it would put the brakes on a scheme launched last year to help boost mortgage lending.
The central bank said the Funding for Lending Scheme (FLS) would stop offering banks incentives for mortgage lending and instead be refocused on helping small firms borrow. The news caused shares in house-building firms to tumble.
Britain’s economy and its housing market have staged an unexpectedly strong turnaround since the FLS was launched by the central bank and the finance ministry in July 2012 in an effort to spur the long-delayed recovery by unblocking credit markets.
“Given the access to credit for households now, .