Google Loses Most of Challenge to German Data-Privacy Order

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Google Inc. lost most of a challenge to a German regulator’s order that limits how it can combine user data that would allow the company to divine customers’ personal preferences, marital status and sexual orientation.

Johannes Caspar, Hamburg’s privacy watchdog, only heeded minor parts of Google’s objection to an order issued in September, he said in an interview Wednesday. The company is obligated to either limit how it uses German customer data or get user consent, he said.