THE HAGUE, Netherlands — A privacy watchdog said Thursday that Google has been breaching Dutch law on personal data protection since it introduced a new privacy policy last year.
Jacob Kohnstamm, chairman of the College for the Protection of Personal Data, said that Google’s combining of data from different services, including surfing multiple websites, to tailor ads and personalize services like YouTube “spins an invisible web of our personal information, without our permission, and that is outlawed.”
Google spokesman Al Verney said the privacy policy “respects European law and allows us to create simpler, more effective services.”
The Netherlands is one of six European nations investigating Google’s privacy policy. The others are with France, Spain, Germany, Britain and Italy.
