Austrian privacy group files complaint against Google

VIENNA: An Austrian online privacy campaign group said today it has filed a complaint against Google over what it says is a tracking code "illegally" installed on Android phones. The complaint from NOYB relates to Google's Android Advertising Identifier (AAID) and has been lodged with the CNIL, France's data protection authority. According to NOYB, the AAID code is created "without the user's knowledge or consent" and "functions like a licence plate that uniquely identifies the phone of a user and can be shared among companies". Furthermore, NOYB (none of your business) says users do not have the option of deleting the code, with only the possibility of generating a new tracking ID. It says this violates the requirement under the EU's e-Privacy Directive for users to give informed consent for such tracking. Stefano Rossetti, a privacy lawyer at NOYB, likened the code to "having colo...