Google spars with European lawmakers over privacy
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Google attacked European  parliamentarians and privacy advocates on Monday for trying to  have competition authorities consider the handling of personal  information in its $3.1 billion takeover of rival DoubleClick.
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EU-Google negotiations going swimmingly The head of Europe's privacy watchdogs said that he is still in negotiations with Google about a major data retention dispute and is confident that the search giant will change its policies.â¦Learn &amp; Contribute, Live &amp; Online - The Register Debates Green Computing
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A proposed law would require companies to keep detailed data about peopleâs Internet and phone use that goes beyond a European Union directive.
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(InfoWorld) - Search giant Google will propose on Friday that governments and technology companies create a transnational privacy policy to address growing concerns over how personal data is handled across the Internet. Google's global privacy counsel, Peter Fleischer, will make the proposal at a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization meeting in Strasbourg, France, dealing with the intersection of technology with human rights and ethics. Fleischer's 30-minute presentation will advocate that regulators, international organizations, and private companies increase dialog on privacy issues with a goal to create a unified standard. Google envisions the policy to be a product of self-regulation by companies, improved laws, and possible new ones, according to a Google spokesman based in London. "We donât want to be prescriptive about who does that and what those standards are because it should be a collaborative effort," the spokesman said. Other organizations have already made progress on privacy standards, he said. For example, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) created a nine-pointÂ Privacy FrameworkÂ designed to aid countries without existing policies. However, the framework has been criticized for vagueness and only been partially implemented by APEC members, said David Bradshaw, principal analyst at Ovum. E.U. privacy regulations are already more stringent than the APEC's recommendations, which highlights the difficulty in creating a global standard that meets existing regulatory requirements in various geographic areas, he said. "From Google's viewpoint, they can't expect the E.U. and those nations that have higher privacy standards to level down to the APEC standards," Bradshaw said. Google's increasing power in search, Internet commerce and software services hasÂ place its privacy policies under scrutiny. In June, Google said it would delete the data it stores about end-users anonymous in its server logs after 18 months, part of an effort toÂ deflate concerns about privacyÂ raised by a European Union (E.U.) working group composed of data protection officials from 27 countries. Google took a further battering after itÂ acquired DoubleClick, an online advertising company that uses technology to track user trends in order to serve them targeted ads. The technology, also used by many other Internet advertising companies, has raised privacy concerns. A European consumer group, Bureau EuropÃ©en des Unions de Consommateurs asked the European Commission in July as well as other authorities to investigateÂ how the DoubleClick deal would impact consumers. The focus on privacy by governments and individual Internet users has resulted in localized legislation, causing a fragmentation in privacy regulations, Google's spokesman said. That can make it difficult for e-commerce businesses, as an increasing amount of data is routinely crossing international borders through credit card transactions, he said. "We really hope that this sparks a sustained, thoughtful creative debate, he said. Â
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(InfoWorld) - A European consumer group has complained that Google's proposed acquisition of online ad broker DoubleClick could hurt privacy rights due to the massive amount of data the companies would hold. In a letter, the Bureau EuropÃ©en des Unions de Consommateurs (BEUC) has asked the European Commission and other authorities to investigate how the deal would affect consumers. Google, whichÂ bought DoubleClickÂ in April for $3.1 billion, refuted the assertion that the deal will harm privacy. "Not surprisingly, we don't agree," said Rachel Whetstone, Google's director of European corporate communications, on Thursday. The company thinks the deal will lead to lower priced ad services for both publishers and advertisers, and the delivery of more relevant ads to users, she said. Google's deal with DoubleClick also prompted scrutiny. The U.S. TheÂ Federal Trade Commission is investigatingÂ the deal following a complaint filed by the Electronic Privacy Information Center, the Center for Digital Democracy, and the U.S. Public Interest Research Group. The groups are concerned how Google will protect its data and users' privacy, including how it will handle cookies and other data that could potentially be used to identify Internet users. The European Commission has not yet been formally notified of the deal by Google or DoubleClick, a Commission spokeswoman said. Acquisitions can fall under the purview of national competition authorities or the European Commission, depending on where the companies do business, their turnover and other factors, the spokeswoman said. Â
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The EU's data protection commissioner says IP addresses should be regarded as personal information, a view, which, if adopted, would profoundly affect the privacy policies of companies like Google and Yahoo.
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(InfoWorld) - European data protection officials are expanding their examination of the impact search engines have on privacy, afterÂ initially targeting Google Inc. last month, European Data Protection Supervisor Peter Hustinx said in an interview late Wednesday. A panel of European data protection officials called the Article 29 Working Group decided Wednesday to request information from Google's rivals amid concerns that search engines are holding onto information about the people who use them for too long, Hustinx said. Hustinx, a senior member of the working group, declined to name the companies. However, they are believed to include Yahoo Inc., Lycos Inc. and Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Live.com. The working group will make a general assessment of the state of European citizens' privacy in relation to search engines at its meeting in October or December, he said. "We will issue a generic paper from which national data protection authorities can address players in their jurisdictions," Hustinx said Google does present specific problems, he added, because so many of its services pose a possible threat to privacy. He mentioned Google Earth and Gmail, Google's Web-based e-mail service. Compiling information about people from the various different Web services could compound the threat to privacy, he said. Google has already replied to the letter it received from the working group last month. "The use of the Internet the way Google is doing it could introduce tremendous privacy problems. We will study the company's response to our letter very carefully," Hustinx said. "If the picture they give is not accurate or not justified we might find ourselves on a collision course," he said, but he added, "That's not my sense at the moment." In Google's response , the company offered to shorten the time it keeps Web searches to 18 months from two years. The company also promised to look at shortening the lifespan of cookies it deposits on computers. Google presently stores cookies, including ones that remember what language a person speaks, for 30 years. Google's cooperation impressed Hustinx until now. "I welcome a big company that is investing in privacy. This isn't just window dressing," he said, echoing comments he made at a data protection conference last month in Amsterdam. Broadening its examination beyond Google is an obvious next step, according to Danny Sullivan, who writes for searchengineland.com. He compared the cookie policies of Google, Windows Live and Yahoo and found that Yahoo stores the data for as long as Google while Windows Live stores the information for 14 years. However, Windows Live deposited far more cookies on computers than Google and Yahoo. Using a clean version of Windows Internet Explorer 7, Sullivan set it to reveal all cookies. Windows Live left 14 cookies as soon as he did a search; Yahoo left six, while Google left just two. "Both Google and Yahoo have 30-year cookies. So where's the letter for Yahoo from the Working Group? And isn't 14 years from Microsoft excessive?" Sullivan wrote. Yahoo and Microsoft both say they take privacy very seriously. "Microsoft has a long-term commitment to providing customers with control over the collection, use and disclosure of their personal information. While we have not received formal communication from the Article 29 Working Party, we recognize that online search is creating legitimate concerns about privacy and are actively engaged with data protection authorities around the world to ensure that our practices meet the highest standards when it comes to protecting privacy," Microsoft said in a statement. "Our users' trust is one of Yahoo's most valuable assets. That's why maintaining that trust and protecting our users' privacy is paramount to us. Our data retention practices vary according to the diverse nature of our services," Yahoo said. Â
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The European Union's data watchdog  will take months to decide whether Google  may be  violating European privacy laws, a spokeswoman for the group  said on Thursday.
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Google has responded to a U.S. congressman&#39;s series of questions about its privacy practices, with the company defending its use of consumer data.
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Google Inc., responding to concerns from a European Union privacy group, has decided to make the data it stores about end users anonymous in its server logs after 18 months.
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SAN FRANCISCO -- Drawing upon its clout as the Internet's most powerful company, Google Inc. is calling on businesses and regulators throughout the world to adopt international standards for protecting consumer privacy online and offline.
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(InfoWorld) - Speaking at a conference in South Korea, Eric Schmidt, the chairman and CEO of Google, ducked the question of whether his company's dominance of Internet search may ultimately distort democratic gains from improved information access. But he promised governments will be held to account more than ever before. "Politicians will be forced to be more transparent," Schmidt said Wednesday, responding to a question from an attendee at the Seoul Digital Forum. Video of Schmidt's remarks was carried live on the Internet. Internet tools like search ultimately help make the world a better place, allowing more people to access information that affects their lives and make smarter choices when voting for officials. "More people looking at an idea results in a better outcome," Schmidt said, calling the Internet a "powerful force for democracy." He did not address the central role that Google plays in this process, but said the company is one among many that offer tools to access information online. While Schmidt preaches the value of greater information access for democracy, Google hasn't always been so free with information about itself. Relative to many of its competitors, the company has earned a reputation for carefully managing the release of information about its activities and executives, even as it compiles reams of personal information about its users. In 2005, Google banned its executives from speaking with reporters from News.com for one year following the publication of a story that detailed information about Schmidt to illustrate the kind of personal data that's available online. Among the details reported in the story were the value of Schmidt's Google stock transactions and his attendance at a political fund raiser for Al Gore during the 2000 presidential campaign. After receiving widespread criticism for its decision, Google relented and ended the ban. Even outside its own activities, Google's support for the free flow of information is not absolute. Where governments discourage the free flow of information, Google has defended itsÂ right to censor search results. Earlier this month, the company's top executivesÂ defeated a shareholder resolutionÂ that would have required the company to stop proactively censoring search results, while permitting the company to engage in censorship when legally required to do so. This approach to censorship, and theÂ amount of personal data that Google collects, are a source of concern in some quarters, including among privacy advocates. Worries about Google's reach and the amount of information it gathers about its users spurred the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) toÂ open an investigationÂ into the company's proposed $3.1 billion acquisition of advertising company DoubleClick. That investigation was prompted by a privacy complaint filed by the Electronic Privacy Information Center, the Center for Digital Democracy, and the U.S. Public Interest Research Group. Addressing the importance of privacy in Seoul, Schmidt said ultimate control over personal information still rested with users. "Google is careful to make everything a user choice," he said, noting users who want to protect their personal information can choose not to use Google's services. For users who opt to share their data with Google, Schmidt promised the company does not hold on to this information indefinitely. "We only retain this information for a specific amount of time," he said, without saying how long such data is stored.
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Google is being taken to task by a UK-based privacy group over its apparent lack of a commitment to the privacy of its users. However, the company is doing what it can do discredit the report.
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Google responds to attacks on its privacy record.
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Europeans seek assurances that company is respecting privacy rights of people whose data it retains.
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InfoWorld - A European consumer group has complained that Google&#39;s proposed acquisition of online ad broker DoubleClick could hurt privacy rights due to the massive amount of data the companies would hold.
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Google is threatening to shut down Gmail in Germany after the country's legislature came close to approving surveillance of communications over the Internet.