Regulate Google: Brits demand greater privacy online
By Tony Hudson
The majority of Britons want stronger action taken against Google to better protect their personal data and online privacy, according to new research.
European data regulators are preparing to investigate the company a year after changes were made to its privacy policy without an opt-out for users.
According to the research, 71% of Brits agree with the proposed action and 66% would support even stronger action being taken.
The research also indicates 68% of Brits were concerned about online privacy and almost half believed the gathering of large amounts of information by companies like Google to be harmful.
Campaign group Big Brother Watch said the results provided a clear message.
"Regulators were right to investigate Google's new privacy policy and now they need to do more to force the company to comply with the law", director Nick Pickles said.
"If regulators don't get a grip of the situation we risk people losing trust in the digital economy and feeling they are not in control of their personal information."
The privacy policy at the centre of the issue was launched in March last year and allows Google to combine data from all of its services, which include YouTube, Gmail and Google+.
The new policy was criticised by European regulators who warned Google to change its approach by February 18th.
"Google did not provide any precise and effective answers" in time, French authority leading the investigation said.
