Google adjusts privacy policy -- slightly
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(InfoWorld) - Google has decided to make the data it stores about end-users anonymous in its server logs after 18 months, according to a blog posted Monday by the company's global privacy counsel. Previously, Google had said it would make the data anonymous after 18 to 24 months. The decision comes in response to a letter the company received last month from a European Union data protection working group regarding Google's privacy policies. Separately, a report released last week by Privacy International ranked Google worse than any other Internet company in protecting the privacy of its users. In its letter, the Article 29 Working Party, an advisory panel of representatives from the E.U.'s national data protection authorities, asked Google to explain why it needed to keep user data for 18 to 24 months. The group said server logs contain information that can be linked to a particular person and that collecting such data must comply with the EU's data protection laws. The working group said keeping the information for 18 to 24 months does not meet those laws, and it asked Google to justify its reasons for keeping the information for that length of time. The group said it planned to discuss this issue at a meeting later this month. In a response, privacy counsel Peter Fleischer said: "The Internet is a global medium, and the principles at stake -- privacy, security, innovation, and legal obligations to retain data -- have an impact beyond Europe and outside of the realm of privacy." He added: "These principles sometimes conflict: While shorter retention periods are good for privacy, longer retention periods are needed for security, innovation, and compliance reasons." Fleischer said Google believed it had "struck a reasonable balance between these various factors" and that its policies were consistent with E.U. data protection laws. Fleischer said Google needed to retain server logs for a variety of reasons, including: to improve its search algorithms for the benefit of users; to defend its systems by fighting click fraud and spam; to comply with data retention legal obligations; and to "meet valid legal orders from law enforcement as they investigate and prosecute serious crimes like child exploitation." "After considering the Working Party's concerns, we are announcing a new policy: to anonymize our search server logs after 18 months, rather than the previously established period of 18 to 24 months," Fleischer said. "We believe that we can still address our legitimate interests in security, innovation, and anti-fraud efforts with this shorter period. However, we must point out that future data retention laws may obligate us to raise the retention period to 24 months." Fleisher said Google disagrees that it could meet "legitimate interests in security, innovation, and anti-fraud efforts with any retention period shorter than 18 months." In addition, Fleischer said Google was considering the working party's concerns about cookie expiration periods and said it was looking into ways to redesign cookies to improve privacy and would make an announcement on the issue in the coming months. "As we build new products and services, we look forward to continuing our discussion with the Article 29 Working Party and with privacy stakeholders around the world. Our common goal is to improve privacy protections for our users," Fleischer said. In his blog, search engine analyst Danny Sullivan, editor-in-chief of SearchEngineLand.com said, "It's nice to see Google make such a fast, responsive move, though it is reacting to something that felt more like a political show rather than a real effort to improve privacy protection." Sullivan also criticized the working group for singling out Google. "I find the letter fairly amazing from a group that supposedly is concerned about privacy, in how it fails to ask any substantial questions and suggests, frankly, technical ignorance," he said in his blog. "It simply feels motivated out of political posturing. Where are the letters for Microsoft and Yahoo?"ADVERTISEMENTIBM Information On Demand 2006Industrial Industry Leaders, please join us at IBM's premier information management global event, IBM Information On Demand 2006, October 15-20, Anaheim, CA. More IBM business and technical solutions content in one place than ever before! Select from  over 800 sessions. Register today!
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Google Inc. is shortening the life span of its "cookie" data-tracking file &#151; but it's not clear whether the move would do much to enhance privacy.
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Google Inc. (GOOG.O: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Monday it has fixed a software flaw that could allow hackers to view information contained on personal computers running the No.
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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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Google's new Google Desktop Search tool raises a number of search privacy issues. In this article, we'll look at some of the usual specters of search privacy plus some new things people should consider.
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Calls it a "public policy dialogue" A week after Privacy International ranked the privacy practices of 23 major web companies and put Google at the very bottom of the list, the Mountain View-based search giant has launched a brand new blog where it will regularly address matters of Internet privacy and other public policy issues, including copyright and trademark protection, online safety for children, content regulation, and patent reform.â¦
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Blog: Google has acquired GrandCentral. Changes are afoot.
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The site tweaks a privacy setting that had revealed personal information from private profiles after a Wired News inquiry, and explains its philosophy on users' privacy. Threat Level talks with chief privacy officer, Chris Kelly.
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A controversial report ranking Google's consumer online-privacy practices at the bottom of a list of popular web companies highlights a profound shift in the company's public image as it has evolved from upstart web darling to seemingly unstoppable commercial powerhouse.
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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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InfoWorld - Google Inc. will make the data it stores about end users anonymous in its server logs after 18 months, part of an effort to deflate concerns about privacy raised last month by a European Union working group.
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TechWeb - AskEraser will provide Ask users with privacy controls that will prevent their searches from being retained on the company&#39;s servers.
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Google Inc.'s privacy practices are the worst among the Internet's top destinations, according to a watchdog group. The group is seeking to intensify the recent focus on how the online search leader handles personal information about its users.
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Following the example set last week by Ask.com's AskEraser announcement, Microsoft has jouned the push toward greater user privacy protections for search-engine queries. The company will introduce an anonymous-surfing option and a new data-retention policy that will purge identifiable info after 18 months.
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The portal's lapse tells a lot about the state of Web search privacy
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Plus: Google apps for your site, and HP's pretexting debacle.
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Google announced Monday that it is shortening the lives of software &quot;cookies&quot; used to track users&#39; online preferences.