
Google Loses Appeal, Forced to Publish €150,000 Fine on Google.fr - prateekj
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2452171,00.asp
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nraynaud
CAUTION, THIS IS NOT TRUE. Google is appealing the sanction, and in the mean
time they asked an emergency injunction ("référé") for not having to do the
message part of the sanction waiting for the appeal (on the ground that if
they win the appeal, their reputation would already be damaged by the
message). The appeal has absolutely not been ruled.

The "emergency" judge simply declared that what they asked for was not
following the specific emergency criterion (basically they didn't believe the
irremediable damage part), and he simply let go the sanction for now. Another
Court will actually judge the appeal itself. If they win the appeal, they get
their money back, and some bragging rights.

here is the PR from the actual court: [http://www.conseil-
etat.fr/fr/communiques-de-presse/sanction...](http://www.conseil-
etat.fr/fr/communiques-de-presse/sanction_prononcee_par_cnil_a-l-
encontre_google_inc.html?%20utm_campaign=referegoogle&utm_medium=communique&utm_source=twt)

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ithkuil
Indeed, the title says "Forced to Publish €150,000 Fine on Google.fr", not
"Fined".

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nraynaud
technically it's completely wrong, they _are_ fined (that's exactly what they
are appealing), and they did not lose the appeal.

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derekp7
Would it be reasonable for, say, a car manufacturer to be forced to include a
statement painted on the side of each car they sold for a period of time? Or a
consumer electronics manufacture to have an apology statement on, say, a TV
that gets displayed whenever you change channels? Something like that would
severely damage their product. So why is it reasonable to require a tech
company to deface their product? Now it wouldn't be as bad for some companies,
where their main domain points to an information page, but the main page for
Google is an application page, not a "web" page. This just feels like a bad
precedent -- what happens when this is forced on another company, who's
application front end isn't conducive to having arbitrary text on it (I'm
thinking of like map programs, word processing, presentation apps, etc).

~~~
nraynaud
Actually French law has specific provisions for media companies. Like if there
is a defamation, generally one of the sanction is a message taking the same
size and spot as the defamation. In other cases, the sanction if to buy some
ad space in the press to put the specific sanction message (for example, after
defrauding the shareholders in a publicly traded company). In local nasty
cases of defamation, it can just be a message in a local newspapers (like a
shop defaming another through a sign or a nasty political fight).

edit: to really answer, there is what we call "individualization of the
sanction", where the court decide what would make sense as a sanction inside a
palette (and to answer by advance: if a court decides something, yes it's
appealable).

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sushirain
Unfortunately, the article doesn't explain what is the dispute between Google
and France. A link to from the article to another one answers it:

 _At issue is an update to Google 's privacy policy that went into effect on
March 1, 2012. The revamp consolidated 70 or so privacy policies across
Google's products down to one. But with this change, Google also switched to
one profile for users across all services rather than separate logins for
offerings like YouTube, Search, and Blogger._

[http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2424952,00.asp](http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2424952,00.asp)

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ZoFreX
I feel that once again legislature is several steps behind technology. Who
even sees the Google front page these days? Anyone searching from their
browsers search bar or address bar, or on their smartphone, won't see this
message.

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jotm
I see it multiple times every day...

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eropple
I know PCMag is pretty hard up for...everything, these days, but a modal "sign
up for our newsletter" box that _doesn 't have a close button_ is the worst
thing I've seen in a while.

(You can get out by hitting Escape, but that doesn't make it okay.)

~~~
click170
Just use NoScript, no more newsletter shenanigans.

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mindslight
I usually just do a whois on the domain and put the admin contact email in. If
that's already signed up, then retry using their nameservers' domain.

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jheriko
I'm just glad France are actually making the effort. Things like law and tax
aren't things that should go away as you become big and wealthy, and
ultimately going against the law of the land whilst not showing respect for it
is asking for trouble.

I hope Google are additionally penalised for their arrogance...

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p4bl0
Funny thing: the French search engine Qwant currently displays a message with
the exact same presentation and almost the same text on their front page. They
just changed to text so it says that they have never been condemned for
anything by the CNIL because they respect privacy.

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hartator
Yeah.. but they are just using Bing in the background so it's not really a
search engine, just another meta ones from the 90s which surviving thanks to
gov. subsidies.

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rikacomet
Trust is a thin line. One must not trust anyone blindly, that is true. But
watching and surveying every move of your own allies, breaks your own
reputation. That is not trusting your allies at all!

But this is a good news, small.. yet a welcome. Though this does not mean that
France is not in with the mass surveillance itself(it might just be a
diplomatic maneuver). But it does mean that at least a few have realized that
privacy of citizens is not something you can mess around with.

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cellover
I find it interesting that the url:
cnil.fr/linstitution/missions/sanctionner/Google/

can almost litteraly be translated by: CNIL, the institution, has for missions
to sanction Google

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spektom
Where will the money go if Google pays the fine? Will I (as Google user) gain
some benefits from this case?

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Vlaix
The money would most likely go to the French state, hence benefiting
indirectly to the whole of French citizens.

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yuhong
I wonder if there is any chance that Vic Gundotra can be fired.

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fiatjaf
The State is cruel and merciless.

