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EU to investigate Google privacy practices

BRUSSELS, April 2 (UPI) -- Six European data protection agencies say they are contemplating legal action against Google over the search engine company's privacy policies.

Regulatory watchdogs in France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Britain said they may take action after a four-month deadline for Google to make changes to its policies expired, the BBC reported Tuesday.

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In October, a European Commission working party said Google's privacy policy didn't meet commission standards on data protection and gave the company four months to comply with recommendations to bring the policy into line with European law.

Those recommendations included allowing users to see what information was being held, provide tools to manage the data and ensure Google didn't retain too much data about users.

"After this period has expired, Google has not implemented any significant compliance measures," French data watchdog CNIL, which headed the investigation into the company's privacy policy, said in a statement.

As a result, all six data protection bodies said they would open new investigations into Google and how it handled privacy.

A spokesman for Google said its privacy policy "respects European law and allows us to create simpler, more effective services."

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"We have engaged fully with the DPAs involved throughout this process, and we'll continue to do so going forward," the spokesman said.

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