Google and Privacy

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Gregory Heller

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June 12, 2007

Google and Privacy

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Listening to Market Place last night, I heard a story about online privacy, and privacy in general. Seems that Privacy International issued a report recently that marks Google as the worst internet company when it comes to privacy. Stop the presses! As the Market Place story rightly points out, "It's important to remember it's not just Internet companies that hold the keys to our private lives. Just think about what businesses learn about you each time you buy something with a credit card or make a phone call." Lisa Dinapoli (the reporter) was paraphrasing search engine expert Danny Sullivan who also said, "We don't need solutions for Google. We need solutions for companies in general." The story quoted Marc Rotenberg of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, "There really can be some better business practices, some good legislation, some ways to get the benefits of new technology without sacrificing so much privacy."

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robin June 16, 2007
Well Google might be trying to better but let's not forget what's happening in China. I watched Frontline this week. It covered Tiananmen Square in 1989: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tankman/ If you don't have a chance to watch it (it's fantastic), what is relevant to this discussion is the fact that Google, Yahoo, Cisco etc. have been working with China to either restrict content or use hardware for surveillance purposes. My memory of the hearings about this issue had faded away until I saw it again this week. NYT has some details about the hearings: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/15/technology/15cnd-internet.html?ex=1297... A large corporation has one plan: make money. It's hard for them to keep up with ethics and morals when shareholders are breathing down their necks.
Gregory Heller June 13, 2007
Today's NYT ran an editorial that points to privacy concerns around google and suggests that it is time for the government to step in and create some privacy protections. The editorial reports that "Data protection chiefs from th 27 countries of the EU sent Google a letter recently questioning the company's policy for retaining consumer information."
Owen Barton June 12, 2007
Interestingly, while Google raises massive potential privacy concerns they are actually doing some interesting work in putting limits on this.
Gregory Heller June 13, 2007
And we all know how anonomized search data can never point back to the user. Just ask 650k AOL users.