When creating a Google account, the Internet company entices consumers to agree to the company's monitoring - even though the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requires a data-saving design and data protection-friendly default settings.
This is the accusation made by ten European consumer associations, which are now taking action against Google using various means under the umbrella of the European consumer organization BEUC:

“Google does not provide the most privacy-friendly options when registering and makes it unnecessarily difficult for users to protect their personal information. The vzbv has therefore warned Google as part of a joint campaign with other European consumer associations.”

Rosemarie Rodden, consultant in the vzbv's legal enforcement team
  • The consumer organizations dTest (Czech Republic), Forbrukerrådet (Norway), EKPIZO and KEPKA (Greece), UFC-Que Choisir (France) and ZPS (Slovenia) have filed GDPR complaints with their data protection authorities.
  • Consumentenbond (Netherlands), Forbrugerrådet Tænk (Denmark) and Sveriges Consumerenter (Sweden) have written to their regulators to alert them to Google's practices.
  • US consumer associations that belong to the Transatlantic Consumer Dialogue (TACD) network have also sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

Ursula Pachl, Deputy Director General of the European Consumer Association (BEUC), said:

“Contrary to Google's claims to protect consumer privacy, millions of Europeans were put on the fast track when they signed up for a Google account. One simple step is enough for Google to monitor and evaluate everything you do. If you want to benefit from privacy-friendly settings, you'll have to navigate a lengthy process and a mix of unclear and misleading options. In short, when you create a Google account, you are subject to surveillance from the start and by default. Instead, protecting privacy should be the default and easiest choice for consumers.

A consumer may choose to create a Google Account voluntarily or may be forced to do so when using certain Google products and services . For example, if they buy a smartphone that uses Google's Android system, on which almost 7 in 10 phones worldwide (69%) depend, they will need to create an account if they want to download apps from the Google Play Store.

Signing in is the critical point at which Google lets users make their “choices” about how they want their Google Account to work. With just one step (“Express Personalization”), the consumer activates all account settings that support Google’s monitoring activities. Google does not offer consumers the ability to disable all settings with one click.

If the consumer wants to activate the more privacy-friendly options, “manual personalization” is required: five steps with ten clicks and dealing with information that is unclear, incomplete and misleading . Regardless of which path the consumer chooses, Google’s data processing is opaque and unfair because it uses consumers’ personal data for vague and broad purposes.”

Many of these issues are not entirely new, as BEUC and its members filed a series of coordinated complaints in November 2018 about Google's processing of consumers' location data. Unfortunately, these complaints remain unresolved.

Article image: pixabay
Sources: Federal Association of Consumer Organizations , BEUC

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