Responding to widespread concerns, the government was expected to ask the Japanese unit of Google Inc. Wednesday in writing to handle personal data carefully, a day ahead of the introduction of the U.S. Internet giant's new privacy policy, sources said. The new privacy policy will bring together personal data collected from Google's more than 60 search engines, emails and other services, giving Google unilateral control of all data about the company's service users, which critics fear could lead to a serious infringement of privacy.

The government's move follows a request the European Union made earlier for Google to postpone introducing the new policy. French regulators also concluded Tuesday that the new policy is not in compliance with EU regulations on data protection.