Google's privacy protection policy criticised

[whitenight]

In a letter to Jane Horvath, senior privacy counsel at Google, Mr Davies said that Google's track record on deploying technology designed to protect privacy was patchy.

He said: "I recall the promise made by Google to the FTC [Federal Trade Commission] during the Doubleclick acquisition that "crumbling cookies" would be developed.

"We have seen no evidence that this technology has been deployed. In response to concerns expressed at the time of our 2007 internet privacy rankings, Google also promised a "privacy dashboard" to help consumers understand the functionality of their user settings. This technology has not appeared."

[news.bbc.co.uk...]

[edited by: Receptional_Andy at 7:29 pm (utc) on July 5, 2008]
[edit reason] See sticky message [/edit]

[tedster]

Ah, good story. The issue comes up around Google's "Street View" and differences in the laws between the US and the UK - but it extends well beyond, as the crumbling cookie issue points out.

In the US it is legal to take photos of people on public streets. But Mr Davies believes that because Street View is being used for commercial ends anyone in the UK who appears in the photo needs to grant his or her consent.

The Street View question seems like a well considered criticism to me, along with Google's unfulfilled crumbling cookie assurances. I hope Google addresses all of this directly - and soon - rather than trying to spin it without actually fixing it.

After much criticism, Google did add a privacy policy link [google.com] to their home page this week. It wouldn't surprise me if that move was related to this news story.

Through that link, Google also provides a form for inquiries about their privact policies [google.com]. Might be an avenue to press for answers to some of the harder questions.