Google Faces European Inquiry into Privacy of Web Searches
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By ALASTAIR DALTON  COMPUTER users could win new rights over the use of personal information by Google after a European investigation was launched into the world's largest search engine.
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BRUSSELS, Belgium -- European Union regulators will decide before November whether to clear Google Inc.'s $3.1 billion takeover bid for online ad tracker DoubleClick or study the issue further.
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BRUSSELS, Belgium -- An independent European Union panel has launched an investigation into whether Google Inc.'s Internet search engine abides by European privacy rules.
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Google defends itself during a European Parliament hearing to consider the Internet's effect on privacy.
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InfoWorld - Data protection officials from 27 European countries have warned Google it is storing data on people&#39;s searches for too long -- but Europe&#39;s top privacy guardian, the European Data Protection Supervisor Peter Hustinx, believes Google&#39;s efforts to respect the privacy of European citizens in its Internet search software &quot;is not just window dressing.&quot;
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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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Questions length of storage time before anonymisation A letter from an influential group of privacy experts in Europe saying that Google's new privacy policies appear to breach the requirements of the EU's data protection regime was published today.â¦
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A European Union probe fueled by concerns over how long Google stores user information has widened to include all Internet search engines.
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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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Privacy to be central to lawmaker hearings in Europe on Google's proposed $3.1 billion acquisition of DoubleClick.
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Web search leader Google Inc.&#39;s   commitment to consumer privacy came under fire from  Privacy International, a British activist group that has  previously singled out Google for criticism.
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A European consumer group has complained that Google Inc.'s proposed acquisition of online ad broker DoubleClick Inc. could hurt privacy rights due to the massive amount of data the companies would hold.
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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 has been warned that it may be violating European Union privacy laws by storing search data from its users for up to two years.
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A European Union probe triggered by concerns over how long Google stores user information has widened to include all Internet search engines.
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By MICHAEL LIEDTKE SAN FRANCISCO - Google Inc.'s privacy practices are the worst among the Internet's top destinations, according to a watchdog group seeking to intensify the recent focus on how the online search leader handles personal information about its users.
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The European Union investigates whether saving search data violates privacy laws.