We have previously reported that the French Data Protection Authority (DPA), the CNIL, had sent to Google 19 March 2012, a 12-page questionnaire divided in not less than 69 main questions on Google’s new privacy policy.

The CNIL has been designated by the Working Party 29 to evaluate the compliance to applicable data protection regulation of Google’s new integrated Privacy Policy, as well as of the integrated data processing Google launched 01 March 2012 despite the CNIL’s demand to postpone such launch.

After having analysed Google’s response received at the end of April, the CNIL sent to Google an additional questionnaire on 22 May 2012 in which the CNIL merely asks for a precise description, for each of its previous questions, of the data processing implemented by Google, and considers Google’s approach, which was done based on examples, as non-sufficient. This letter was issued just before a meeting with Google 23 May in Paris.

If the general tone of the CNIL’s President, Mrs. Falque-Pierrotin, to Google’s CEO Larry Page is very amicable, the CNIL’s notes on this letter, published again on CNIL’s website, in English, show how deep the CNIL’s concerns are:

  • The CNIL still considers it impossible to know Google’s processings of personal data
  • It concludes that there is still no clarification regarding the links between collected data, purposes and recipients
  • It also considers that the obligation of information of the data subjects is not respected
  • The CNIL notes that Google has not provided a maximum retention period for the data
  • It also wants to clarify the effects of Google’s opt-out mechanisms and their validity with respect to the right to oppose
  • The CNIL lacks Google’s answer as to the treatment of “passive users” defined as users of Google’s services (advertising, analytics, +1 button) when they visit third-party websites

Google is due, according to the schedule set forth by the CNIL, to answer until 8 June 2012 to this additional questionnaire.

The CNIL will then provide its conclusions to the Working Party 29 by mid-July.