GoogleGuy - 7:14 am on Apr 21, 2005 (gmt 0)

BeeDeeDubbleU, without that phrase I don't think we could enlist a trusted company to print and mail checks to AdSense publishers, for example, even if they signed a confidentiality agreement?

But by all means, please compare our privacy policy to other search engines. Yahoo mentions

We provide the information to trusted partners who work on behalf of or with Yahoo! under confidentiality agreements. These companies may use your personal information to help Yahoo! communicate with you about offers from Yahoo! and our marketing partners.

for example, which sounds about the same except that Yahoo allows marketing partners. Then Yahoo also allows third-party cookies, as well according to [privacy.yahoo.com...]
so that surfers can be cookied on Yahoo for third parties to track.

Similar language from Ask Jeeves:

Agents and contractors who have access to personally identifiable information collected through the site are required to protect this information in a manner that is consistent with this policy.

And similar language from MSN:

We occasionally hire other companies to provide limited services on our behalf, such as handling the processing and delivery of mailings, providing customer support, processing transactions, or performing statistical analysis of our services. We will only provide those companies the personal information they need to deliver the service. They are required to maintain the confidentiality of your information and are prohibited from using that information for any other purpose.

I'm an engineer, so I prefer to stay away from legal stuff, but when you compare privacy policies across a lot of companies, I believe our privacy policy stacks up well. :)

[edited by: GoogleGuy at 7:22 am (utc) on April 21, 2005]