European consumer groups take action against Google

• Google is using deceptive design, unclear language and misleading choices when consumers sign up to a Google account to encourage more extensive and invasive data processing.
• Contrary to its claims, the tech giant is thwarting consumers who want to better protect their privacy.
• Consumer groups are taking action on suspected breaches of the GDPR.

Tech giant Google is unfairly steering consumers towards its surveillance system when they sign up to a Google account, instead of giving them privacy by design and by default as required by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

As a result, ten consumer groups, under the coordination of the European Consumer Organisation (BEUC), are taking action to ensure that Google complies with the law:

• dTest (Czech Republic), Forbrukerrådet (Norway), EKPIZO and KEPKA (Greece), UFC-Que Choisir (France) and ZPS (Slovenia) have filed GDPR complaints with their data protection authorities.
• Verbraucherzentrale Bundesverband – vzbv (Germany) has sent a warning letter to Google, a first step before potentially filing a civil lawsuit.
• Consumentenbond (Netherlands), Forbrugerrådet Tænk (Denmark) and Sveriges Konsumenter (Sweden) have written to their national authorities to alert them about Google’s practices.
• US consumer groups from the Transatlantic Consumer Dialogue (TACD) network are also sending a letter today to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) denouncing Google’s practices.