Google gets low privacy rating
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.
In a report released Saturday, London-based Privacy International assigned Google its lowest possible grade. The category is reserved for companies with “comprehensive consumer surveillance and entrenched hostility to privacy.”
None of the 22 other surveyed companies -- a group that included Yahoo Inc., Microsoft Corp. and AOL -- sank to that level, according to the report.
Although a number of other Internet companies have troubling policies, none comes as close to Google to “achieving status as an endemic threat to privacy,” Privacy International said in an explanation of its findings.
In a statement from one of its lawyers, Mountain View, Calif.-based Google said that it aggressively protected user privacy and that it stood behind its track record.
In its most conspicuous defense of user privacy, Google last year successfully fought a U.S. Justice Department subpoena demanding to review millions of search requests.
“We are disappointed with Privacy International’s report, which is based on numerous inaccuracies and misunderstandings about our services,” said Nicole Wong, Google’s deputy general counsel.
“It’s a shame that Privacy International decided to publish its report before we had an opportunity to discuss our privacy practices with them.”
Privacy International contacted Google this month but didn’t receive a response, said Simon Davies, the group’s director.
The scathing report is the latest strike aimed at Google’s privacy practices.
An independent European panel recently opened an inquiry into whether Google’s policies abide by Europe’s privacy rules.
Meanwhile, three U.S. groups are pressuring the nation’s regulators to ensure that Google changes some of its privacy policies as part of its proposed $3.1-billion acquisition of online ad service DoubleClick Inc., which also tracks the behavior of Web surfers.
The Federal Trade Commission is looking into antitrust concerns raised by the DoubleClick deal but has not indicated whether privacy issues will be part of the inquiry.
Hoping to placate its critics, Google has pledged to begin erasing the information about users’ search requests within 18 to 24 months.
The company says it stockpiles data to help its search engine better understand its users so it can deliver more relevant results and advertisements.
As Google becomes more knowledgeable about the people relying on its search engine and other free services, management hopes to develop more tools that recommend activities and other pursuits that might appeal to individual users.
Privacy International is particularly troubled by Google’s ability to match data gathered by its search engine with information collected from other services such as e-mail, instant messaging and maps.
“Under the microscope, it turns out that Google is doing much more with our data than we ever imagined,” Davies said.
Privacy International said it reached its initial findings after spending the last six months reviewing Internet privacy practices with the help of about 30 professors, mostly in the U.S. and Britain. An updated report will be released in September.
Seven of the Internet companies and websites included in the report received the second-lowest grade of “substantial and comprehensive privacy threats.” They were Time Warner Inc.’s AOL, Apple Inc., Facebook.com, Hi5.com, Reunion.com, Microsoft’s Windows Live Space and Yahoo.
No company or site received Privacy International’s top grade, but five rated as “generally privacy-aware.” They were BBC, EBay Inc., Last.fm, LiveJournal.com and Wikipedia.com.
