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Google Gives an Inch in EU
Privacy Tiff
A European privacy group has convinced Google to clear its user
data of information that could be used to identify the user once
the data has existed for 18 months. Google noted, however, that
governments and businesses are obliged to retain information,
and it's difficult to operate a global Internet service
according to different privacy standards in different countries.
A European privacy group has convinced Google to clear its user
data of information that could be used to identify the user once
the data has existed for 18 months. Google noted, however, that
governments and businesses are obliged to retain information,
and it's difficult to operate a global Internet service
according to different privacy standards in different countries.
A Big Know-It-All
Earlier this week, Privacy International, a London-based privacy
advocacy group, ranked Google as the worst in protecting
customer privacy out of a field of nearly two dozen major
Internet-based companies. Google acknowledges sharing general
user statistics but insists it never provides outsiders with
personally-identifiable data.
Search logs aren't the only data being questioned by the EU. In
May, the Working Party expressed concern for Google's use of
"cookies" to track customers' search habits and other
propensities. The EU was particularly concerned about the length
of time Google retained cookie data.
"We are considering the Working Party's concerns regarding
cookie expiration periods, and we are exploring ways to redesign
cookies and to reduce their expiration without artificially
forcing users to re-enter basic preferences such as language
preference," wrote Fleischer in his response. "We plan to make
an announcement about privacy improvements for our cookies in
the coming months."
In March, Google explained that anonymizing the logs entails
changing some of the bits in the IP (Internet protocol) address
in the logs as well as the cookie information. "We're still
developing the precise technical methods and approach to this,
but we believe these changes will be a significant addition to
protecting user privacy," said the company.
It explained that changing the bits of an IP addresses and
cookies makes it "less likely" that IP addresses can be
associated with specific computers or users.
By Fred J. Aun
TechNewsWorld
06/12/07 11:06 AM PT
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