In an attempt to quash legal action by a group of Britons, Google claims it is exempt from UK privacy laws. The internet giant is accused of illegally tracking customers online through bypassing security settings in order to collect user’s personal information. The UK High Court was told by Google that there is no authority for the legal case to occur in the UK, as its services are provided by the US sector. These comments have sparked outrage as Google currently operates in the UK and is in the process of erecting a $1bn headquarters in the UK. This news comes after Google was found to be extorting a loophole in web browser, Safari, that enabled it to monitor user’s activities even though the user had opted out of tracking. Resulting from this, The Federal Trade Commission fined Google $22.5million in August 2012. However, action by The Information Commissioners Office (ICO) would be pointless as the ICO are limited to fines. The maximum fine able to be imposed by the ICO is £500,000, less than 0.002% of Google’s annual turnover. The claimants aim to sue Google for breach of confidence, computer misuse and breach of the Data Protection Act 1998. Following on from revelations about the NSA, it raises questions about the privacy and protection rights of customers using US based companies for email and web services.Redstor is UK owned and based, and can guarantee your data privacy rights will not be compromised. Offering two UK data centers, security and data protection are at the forefront of Redstor’s service offerings enabling full compliance with the Data Protection Act.Our Online Backup service helps ensure data is safely backed up offsite in an encrypted format. Our Centrastor service enables organisations to store and share files securely online and our CentraStage service enables support providers to guarantee that devices they support are regularly audited, patched and safely up-to-date.
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