Group suing FTC to stop Google’s privacy policy changes

When Google announced its proposed changes to its privacy policy, it sparked nothing short of an uproar from your privacy advocates to your casual internet user. It even recently drew attention from the European Union, with regulators calling on Google to halt the changes.

Google still hasn’t backed down, and very likely won’t, but that isn’t stopping some from trying to put a stop to it. In fact, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a consumer watchdog group, has now filed a lawsuit in an attempt to block Google’s privacy policy changes.

The group isn’t suing Google directly, however. According to a report by the LA Times:

In an unusual end run around the FTC, the watchdog group is asking a federal judge to issue a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to compel federal regulators to enforce a settlement they reached with Google last year and protect consumers who will be “left without recourse if the commission fails to enforce its order.”

Last year, Google reached a settlement after being charged with violating privacy laws when it exposed the personal data of Gmail users when it released its now-defunct Google Buzz product. As a result of the settlement, Google was required by the FTC to build privacy protection into its products, and to avoid sharing user data outside the company without express permission from users.

Google denied that the upcoming privacy policy changes violate their settlement with the FTC, saying:

We take privacy very seriously. We’re happy to engage in constructive conversations about our updated privacy policy but EPIC is wrong on the facts and the law,” a Google spokesman said.

Source: LA Times