Google"s new privacy policies has certainly generated a lot of talk since they were first announced last week. Today Reuters reports that a group of European regulators has sent a letter to Google that requests the company put its new policies on hold until the group can examine whether or not the policies protect the personal information of Google"s users.
The Article 29 Working Party, which brings together data protection authorities from each of the European Union"s 27 countries, said in its letter to Google, "... we call for a pause in the interests of ensuring that there can be no misunderstanding about Google"s commitments to information rights of their users and EU citizens, until we have completed our analysis."
A Google spokesperson said the company had already briefed most of the regulators about their policy changes weeks before they were made public and added, "None of them expressed substantial concerns at the time, but of course we"re happy to speak with any data protection authority that has questions."
Google"s changes, which go into effect on March 1, will make all of Google"s product come under one set of privacy polices. This week, Microsoft slammed those changes in a newspaper ad this week, claiming that Google will make it harder for people to control their own personal information. Google denied Microsoft"s charges in its own response to the ad.