Google gives in to EU concerns
2007-06-13 10:44
San Francisco - Faced with concerns by European online privacy advocates, Google is promising to obscure information about people's internet searches after only 18 months.
Google's global privacy counsel Peter Fleischer revealed late on Monday that the Mountain View, California, firm's policy change in a letter to the Article 29 Data Protection Working Party in Belgium.
Fleischer's message was a response to a demand by Article 29 that Google justify why it doesn't conform to the Resolution on Privacy Protection and Search Engines adopted in London in November of 2006.
The resolution calls on search engines to erase data linking people to searches when sessions end unless they get permission to keep it.
Google announced in March a policy to edit data to render users anonymous after 18 to 24 months. Article 29 implied California-based Google is flaunting European regulations.
Protect the system
"Google is a US company and respects US laws, but we are also a global company, doing business across Europe and across the world, and we recognise the need to respect laws of the countries in which we do business," Fleischer wrote.
"After considering the Working Party's concerns, we are announcing a new policy. To anonymise our search server logs after 18 months."
Google said it needs to keep information about searchers and their online explorations to protect its system against attacks; expose online scams and hackers; to improve the algorithm on which searches are based and to meet requirements by law enforcement.
"Clearly, some period of retention is necessary," Fleischer wrote.
"A policy of immediate deletion would not serve our users and would breach many of our legal and ethical obligations."
Google called on the Working Party to lobby European nations to make laws regarding what information has to be kept and by whom clearer and more regionally uniform for internet firms.
Public discussion needed
"In short, there is tremendous confusion in legal circles across Europe on these issues and both individuals and companies would benefit from greater clarity from authorities," wrote Fleischer, who is based in Paris.
"A public discussion is needed between officials working in data protection and law enforcement to resolve these issues."
The exchange between Fleischer and Working Party chairman Peter Schaar was posted on Google's website after a British human rights group concluded Google has the most abysmal privacy policies and is leading a "race to the bottom" by the world's most renowned internet firms.
London-based Privacy International, which has monitored rights protections on the Internet since its fledgling days, ranked Google "hostile to privacy."
Vast amounts of information collected
Google scored lower in privacy protection than rivals Microsoft, Yahoo and AOL.
"Throughout our research we have found numerous deficiencies and hostilities in Google's approach to privacy that go well beyond those of other organisations," PI stated in the report.
Google collects vast amounts of information about users and is poised to amass even more with the pending purchase of ad-tracking firm Double Click, according to PI.
While other internet firms share some of Google's negative traits, "none comes close to achieving status as an endemic threat to privacy," the report stated.
Google told AFP that it is proud of its array of products and that it stands by what it claimed as a record for protecting user privacy.
"We are disappointed with Privacy International's report which is based on numerous inaccuracies and misunderstandings about our services," Google general counsel Nicole Wong said in a written statement.
"We recognise that user trust is central to our business and Google aggressively protects our users' privacy."
Google has a "vague, incomplete and possibly deceptive" privacy policy, PI concluded in the report.