Microsoft, Ask.com pressure Google on privacy
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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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Google and Microsoft go head to head in the consumer healthcare market but privacy experts worry about personal information going online.
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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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Once relatively indifferent to government affairs, Google Inc. is seeking help inside the Beltway to fight the rise of Web censorship worldwide.
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By Michael LiedtkeSAN FRANCISCO, Associated Press  INTERNET search leader Google Inc.
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By Michael Liedtke Associated Press  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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With pressure increasing on search portals to protect user privacy, Ask.com has announced that it will offer an anonymous-search option that bars the service from retaining any data.
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Google, a frequent target of privacy advocates, yesterday called for new international standards on the collection and use of consumer data.
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(InfoWorld) - When it comes to protecting the privacy of its users, Google ranks worse than any other Internet company, according to an interim report by Privacy International. The international watchdog group also accused Google of engaging in a smear campaign in response to its findings and demanded an apology. Privacy International's findings, based on six months of research, placed Google at the bottom of 23 Internet companies examined by the group. Google was the only company to earn the bottom ranking for "comprehensive consumer surveillance and entrenched hostility to privacy." Other companies, such as Microsoft and Yahoo, rated slightly better that Google. Microsoft was given a rating of four out of six for "serious lapses in privacy practices." Yahoo was given a ranking of five of six, one better than Google, for "substantial and comprehensive privacy threats." "We are aware that the decision to place Google at the bottom of the ranking is likely to be controversial, but throughout our research, we have found numerous deficiencies and hostilities in Google's approach to privacy that go well beyond those of other organizations," Privacy International said. In particular, the group cited the large amount of data that Google collects about its users and lack of privacy controls. "Google's increasing ability to deep-drill into the minutiae of a user's life and lifestyle choices must in our view be coupled with well defined and mature user controls and an equally mature privacy outlook," Privacy International said. "Neither of these elements has been demonstrated." Privacy International plans to issue a final report in September. Google executives were not immediately available to comment on the report's findings. But an open letter to Google CEO Eric Schmidt from Privacy International Director Simon Davies accused the company of engaging in a smear campaign in response to the group's findings. "Two European journalists have independently told us that Google representatives have contacted them with the claim that 'Privacy International has a conflict of interest regarding Microsoft.' I presume this was motivated because Microsoft scored an overall better result than Google in the rankings," Davies wrote. Google allegedly claimed a conflict of interest exist because one of 70 people on Privacy International's board of advisors is a current Microsoft employee. Davies rejected the charge and listed five critical actions the group has taken against Microsoft, including support for the European Commission's investigation into Microsoft. "Can I be so bold as to suggest that your company's actions stem from sour grapes that you achieved the lowest ranking amongst the Internet giants?" Davies wrote, demanding an apology from Schmidt. This isn't the first time that Privacy International has raised privacy concerns about Google. In 2004, the group filed a privacy complaint over Google's Gmail service with regulators in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Greece, Italy, Spain, the Czech Republic, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Ireland, Portugal, Poland, Austria, Australia, and Canada, as well as with the European Commission. To date, Google has rejected concerns over the information it gathers and stores about users. Speaking recently in South Korea, Schmidt dismissed privacy concerns over the data collected by the company, saying users worried about privacy can always choose not to use the company's services. He also said Google deletes information about users after a certain period of time but did not say how long that period is. Privacy concerns about Google have also been raised overÂ the company's acquisition of DoubleClick, sparking anÂ investigation by the U.S. Fair Trade Commission (FTC). That investigation is ongoing. While Google has taken flack from critics for its privacy policies, the company has acted to protect users in at least one case: In January 2006, Google was the only company to resist a U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) subpoena for a random sampling of 1 million Web addresses that users searched for. AOL, Microsoft, and Yahoo did not fight the DOJ's request, which did not seek information that would have identified the users who made the search requests contained in the sample. Ultimately, Google shared a smaller amount of data with the DOJ.
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A European consumer group has complained that Google Inc.&#39;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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If you use shared or public computers, you have a new privacy risk to consider: Google Desktop Search. Announced last week and currently available in a beta version, Google Desktop Search allows you to scour
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Privacy questioned Google has faced down one European probe into what it does with people's personal information, only to be challenged with another.â¦
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Google Inc , the world's  largest Internet company, will propose at a meeting of  international policymakers in France on Friday that national  regulators agree on a basic set of global privacy protections.
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The possibility of a merger between Microsoft and Yahoo is raising concerns among privacy advocates, who worry that it could lead to even more  tracking of online behavior for advertising purposes.
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By CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER WASHINGTON - Once relatively indifferent to government affairs, Google Inc. is seeking help inside the Beltway to fight the rise of Web censorship worldwide. The online search giant is taking a novel approach to the problem by asking U.S.
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Google has the most abysmal privacy policies and is leading a &quot;race to the bottom&quot; by the world&#39;s most renowned Internet firms, according to a British human rights advocacy group.
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(InfoWorld) - The U.S. government still needs to block or impose conditions on Google's acquisition of online advertising server DoubleClick, despite Google's call for global privacy standards, three privacy groups said Monday. Google last Friday called for a global privacy standard, and the company referred to a framework designed by Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC). But the APEC standard is "weak," Melissa Ngo, director of the Identification and Surveillance Project at the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), said during a press conference Monday. The APEC standard "puts the burden on consumers to prove they are being harmed," she said. Google's call for a global privacy standardÂ does not allay concerns that privacy groups have withÂ Google's proposed $3.1 billion purchase of DoubleClick, said Amina Fazlullah, staff attorney with consumer group U.S. Public Interest Research Group (US PIRG). Consolidation in the online advertising market could lead to more demand for consumers' private information, Fazlullah said. In addition, Web sites will have few choices for which vendors to deliver their ads, she said. "The resulting Google company will have a lot of control over what we can actually see, read, and hear about online," Fazlullah said. "That is definitely problematic for consumers, but also for greater democratic concerns." A Google spokesman said the APEC privacy standard is just one model the company has pointed to. Google also supports the U.S. Federal Trade Commission's town hall meeting on the evolving online advertising market, to be held in early November, spokesman Adam Kovacevich said. EPIC's complaints about Google's privacy policies are "unsupported by the facts and the law," Google added in a statement. "Google aggressively protects user privacy, and user trust is central to Google's values and essential to the success of our products," Google said. "We have engaged with numerous privacy and consumer advocates to discuss and explain our acquisition of DoubleClick, but unfortunately EPIC has refused every offer we have made to meet with them. We can only conclude that EPIC would prefer not to be informed about the erroneous claims it is making." But the privacy groups said Google continues to collect a "massive" amount of data about users. "There is no greater threat to competition in the online market and also a threat to privacy than the Google/DoubleClick merger," said Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy. Combining Google's search dominance with DoubleClick's display advertising dominance "will give Google an overwhelming share of control of the online advertising market," he added.