UK’s ICO Watchdog Tells Google To Update Privacy Policy By September 20th Or Else

The NextWeb reports Google is on the hot seat again over its simplified privacy policy that went into effect March 1, 2012.

The Information Commissioner’s Office in the UK has set a deadline of September 20, 2013 for Google to amend the policy to make it easier for consumers to understand how Google will use their data.

The ICO’s statement was released yesterday, and the ICO president said:

We have today written to Google to confirm our findings relating to the update of the company’s privacy policy. In our letter we confirm that its updated privacy policy raises serious questions about its compliance with the UK Data Protection Act.

In particular, we believe that the updated policy does not provide sufficient information to enable UK users of Google’s services to understand how their data will be used across all of the company’s products.

Google must now amend their privacy policy to make it more informative for individual service users. Failure to take the necessary action to improve the policies compliance with the Data Protection Act by 20 September will leave the company open to the possibility of formal enforcement action.

Earlier this month, Google told US Congress that they will not change their privacy policy for Google Glass.

For more on Google and the EU’s battle on this privacy policy, see below:

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