French Privacy Agency DDoS's Itself In Ordering Google To Link To It From Google France Home Page

from the what-you-get-when-you're-technologically-clueless dept

Mon, Feb 10th 2014 3:38am — Mike Masnick

Last month, Google got hit with a €150,000 fine for its new privacy policy, which French regulators claimed violated the law. Google has been disputing this and has appealed, but as part of the ruling by the French National commission for Computing and Civil Liberties (CNIL), Google was ordered to post a statement to the home page of Google.fr about the fine, along with a link back to CNIL's website which had the full ruling. Google had asked to suspend the order to post the message until after the appeals process was complete, but that was denied. In response, Google posted the message, and promptly caused CNIL's website to go offline, as apparently the technologically clueless folks over there never realized that having a link from Google's home page in that country might lead to a bit of extra traffic.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: cnil, ddos, france, google home page, link, privacy
Companies: google

38 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

Ninja (profile), 10 Feb 2014 @ 2:08am

First time I hear of a Governmental Agency with suicidal tendencies.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- arcan, 10 Feb 2014 @ 3:46am
  
  Re:
  you mean like the NSA?
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Violynne (profile), 10 Feb 2014 @ 3:52am

They were probably more surprised people actually clicked the link.

Both sides.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Howard (profile), 10 Feb 2014 @ 4:09am
  
  Re:
  I think google intentionally hotlinked to the governmental site, so it'd requested every time someone load google.fr.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - Ninja (profile), 10 Feb 2014 @ 5:26am
    
    Re: Re:
    That would be epic in so many levels...
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Robert Julian (profile), 10 Feb 2014 @ 4:00am

Actually, this will make Google look bad. Because whenever a user clicks a link on a site, and that link doesn't work, random users will blame the original site.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 10 Feb 2014 @ 4:07am
  
  Re:
  And in this case, "random users" is likely to be CNIL itself.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 10 Feb 2014 @ 4:18am

I admit I'm a bit disappointed it loaded for me.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
kenichi tanaka (profile), 10 Feb 2014 @ 4:34am

I have only one thing to say to the French Government:

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

France: Clueless?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- The Mighty Buzzard (profile), 10 Feb 2014 @ 7:44am
  
  Re:
  Even their websites surrender.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 10 Feb 2014 @ 7:50am
  
  Re:
  "France: Clueless?"
  
  As we all know, a country's politicians do not necessary represent its constituents - in any way at all.
  
  That being said, Hahahahahahhaa. What idiots!
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - Aerilus, 10 Feb 2014 @ 4:04pm
    
    Re: Re:
    Ted Cruz (We were all thinking it)
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
anon, 10 Feb 2014 @ 4:40am

So their name is CNiL and I guess they're composed of a bunch of senile old fools with no understanding of Google's usage.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Bt Garner (profile), 10 Feb 2014 @ 4:43am

I wonder how much of that self-imposed DDoS is from search agent bots.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
axel, 10 Feb 2014 @ 5:20am

Ok, you can stop the circle jerk, the CNIL aren't the most tech-savvy French agency, but they are far from �technologically clueless�.

Obviously, they didn't expect so much traffic, but that doesn't make them tech idiots, they released a GPL-licensed cookie visualisation tool last month for instance: http://www.cnil.fr/vos-droits/vos-traces/les-cookies/telechargez-cookieviz/

(it's hosted on Sourceforge, yeah, that's not very future-oriented�)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- PaulT (profile), 10 Feb 2014 @ 5:39am
  
  Re:
  Why is it that people feel they need to insult people before "correcting" them?
  
  Anyway, whoever represented the agency in this case isn't exactly clued up on technology, or at least didn't think far enough ahead to realise the results of their demands. That they happen to have some FOSS coders on their payroll doesn't change this.
  
  If it makes you feel better, read the comment as referring to the people responsible for actions on behalf of the agency rather than their entire staff. That doesn't change the actual criticism.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - Aerilus, 10 Feb 2014 @ 4:06pm
    
    Re: Re:
    Lawyers are like small children. You tell them they cant have something and they want it even more.
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 10 Feb 2014 @ 5:57am
  
  Re:
  Looks a lot like "Lightbeam for Firefox"
  by Mozilla
  https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/lightbeam/?src=search
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
gab4moi (profile), 10 Feb 2014 @ 5:26am

Merde!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
That One Guy (profile), 10 Feb 2014 @ 5:33am

'That's what we asked for, not what we wanted, curse you Google for doing what we told you to!'
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 10 Feb 2014 @ 6:06pm
  
  Re:
  Ah the joys of malicious obedience.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 10 Feb 2014 @ 5:43am

This whole article belongs in the next "Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week" article

Dumb asses, 1. For not thinking this over, again!
and 2. Trying to influence public opinion on a mass scale during a "legal" battle,
For number two they are considerably a worser thing, then a "dumb ass"
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- That One Guy (profile), 10 Feb 2014 @ 7:51am
  
  Re:
  Yeah, the first part brings about a delightful sense of schadenfreude, while the second is just completely screwed up, forcing a company to tell people that they lost a case, before the appeal is allowed to happen, so even if they do win the appeal, people will still believe them guilty.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - Anonymous Coward, 10 Feb 2014 @ 9:42am
    
    Re: Re:
    Exactly, they hold no value on the true meaning of right, only on the value of an illusion, that can be gotten away with
    
    i.e. their right, even if the verdict is overturned, so any mention of this should the subject come up, they won, and the "law" backs them up, hoping that the person they say this too hasnt kept up, and knows of the overturn and realises the lie to such a statement, when their only concern is to "win"sic the current argument and hope everyone leaves before the truth of it comes out *sic*
    
    Plus, the undisguised FORCED influence they are attempting, knowing that there is NOTHING right about what they say, but an artificial one.........they insult the people by not acknowledging their own damn individual opinions, or perhaps they know that what they do IS'NT right........they feel they need to brainwash......sorry......educate the people........for the n'th time, for the n'th generation
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 10 Feb 2014 @ 5:59am

Unless Google DDoS'd them.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 10 Feb 2014 @ 6:08am

Be careful what you ask for, you might get it...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 10 Feb 2014 @ 6:51am

You want the traffic, you can't handle the traffic.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
wto605 (profile), 10 Feb 2014 @ 8:06am

Usually I post this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnHmskwqCCQ

But this seems more French:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebvp45ZMQFE&t=5s
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
David, 10 Feb 2014 @ 8:30am

And Google can't do anything about it
without another court order.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
The Amazing Sammy (profile), 10 Feb 2014 @ 8:50am

If I were Google, I would show some sympathy, and go to the privacy advocates, with the intention of solving their problem. I would tell them, that we would happily host their website, if they put an ad for Google on their homepage.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
slabman, 10 Feb 2014 @ 8:51am

Strange concept
Making Google obey the law? What a weirdly foreign idea - it would never happen in the USA
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Aerilus, 10 Feb 2014 @ 4:09pm
  
  Re: Strange concept
  Laws are like the bible. every one says to follow them but no one has read them all the way through. and they really only want you to follow the ones that they think applies to there argument.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Kionae (profile), 10 Feb 2014 @ 9:01am

Reap what you sow
It looks like the Google France homepage has removed the notice and link. Wonder if CNIL begged them to do so.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- artp (profile), 10 Feb 2014 @ 1:31pm
  
  Re: Reap what you sow
  Darn!
  
  I was hoping that Google would hold them to the court order and say that they could not remove the link without the court's permission.
  
  And yes, I am passive-aggressive. :-)
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
That Anonymous Coward (profile), 10 Feb 2014 @ 10:13am

And now the appeal will be lost.
A government will never admit their own fault, so this will be shown as Google being evil and crashing them because they were unhappy with the courts ruling.
The appeal will be decided on that factor rather than the law because Google needs to be taught a lesson.
This works perfectly
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- That One Guy (profile), 10 Feb 2014 @ 1:33pm
  
  Re:
  Honestly, it wouldn't surprise me if the prosecution tried to use the fact that Google 'admitted' their guilt(well, was forced to admit to losing in court, but why let facts get in the way?) against Google in the appeals.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Aerilus, 10 Feb 2014 @ 4:02pm

oui, oui

funny how that applies pronouced french, american or even australian
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 10 Feb 2014 @ 6:31pm

Somewhere, out_of_the_lube is stamping his feet and cringing his fists, throwing a little tantrum.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]