German regulator warns Google on online users data protection

The city of Hamburg’s data protection regulator, a Germany-based data protection agency, said in a legal ruling that Google must seek Germans’ expressed permission before it uses their data to create online user profiles across its services such as e-mail, online search and its Android-based mobile products.

The German regulator acknowledged that Google did not collect this delicate information to target advertising to people online. But it added that other information that the company aggregated without users’ consent could nevertheless allow the company to form a detailed picture of individual users.

Google may face financial penalties of up to EUR 1 million, or about USD 1.27 million, if it does not comply with the regulator’s ruling. Google has a month to respond to the ruling, which was based on an investigation that began in April 2013.