Court proceedings have been launched against Alphabet’s Google by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) for misleading the consumers over the use of personal data for its key source of income – targeted advertising.
The complaint filed by the market regulator ACCC stated, “Google did not explicitly get consent nor properly inform consumers about a 2016 move to combine personal information in Google accounts with activities on non-Google websites that use its technology.”
ACCC submitted that this practice allowed Alphabet Inc unit to link the names as well as other ways to identify consumers with their behaviour elsewhere on the internet.
“We are taking this action because we consider Google misled Australian consumers about what it planned to do with large amounts of their personal information, including internet activity on websites not connected to Google,” stated ACCC Chairman, Rod Sims.
The Australian regulator has alleged that tech giant Google used combined user data to boost the targeted advertising and has not clarified anything about its privacy policy.
Besides that, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has not communicated anything about what directions it is seeking from the court and stated that it has filed the claim on a “confidential basis pending claims by Google”.
