Google targeted in fresh EU consumer groups’ privacy complaints

Some of the agencies complained to their privacy enforcers about Google’s tracking of users four years ago but have yet to see any action taken

Google has been targeted by a French consumer group and its peers in complaints to privacy watchdogs over its vast trove of users' personal data harvested via their Google accounts, European consumer organisation BEUC said on Thursday.

(Sign up to our Technology newsletter, Today’s Cache, for insights on emerging themes at the intersection of technology, business and policy. Click here to subscribe for free.)

In addition to the French consumer group, others in Greece, the Czech Republic, Norway and Slovenia have taken their complaints to their data protection authorities, BEUC said.

It said the German consumer body had sent a letter to Google, a unit of Alphabet, that could lead to a civil lawsuit, while consumer agencies in the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden have written to their privacy regulators alerting them about Google's practices.

BEUC said the issue was Google's account sign-up process.

"The language Google uses at every step of the registration process is unclear, incomplete, and misleading," the group said.

"Google also frames the more privacy-friendly options as missing out on advantages.