Google has privacy issues?
If the folks over at Privacy International are to be believed, then the answer is a resounding "yes." A recent study by the reputable international watchdog agency rated Google as the least secure site among all major internet destinations. Among the issues that Google is being charged with are: "Failure to provide an expungement option for retained data; Failure to follow generally accepted privacy practices such as the OECD Privacy Guidelines and elements of EU data protection law; and unstated or indefinite length of time for data retention, without clear limitation on use or disclosure.” Yowza. Those are some pretty heavy accusations. Google’s response was pretty weak, with the company’s deputy general counsel, Nicole Wong saying simply that the company stands aggressively behind the privacy and security of its users and their information. Could you be any less specific? As Google expands into every possible realm of the internet, these concerns should be significant enough to warrant taking a long, hard look at your use of Google’s services. Kinda’.
Come on people we all know this yet we can help but use all of their features. I mean I have used most of their features and its great. But security issuses are important. As we can see in the form of Verizon and the Good partnership.
Well of course this is true considering they keep copies of your emails and logs of where you search the web.
ZOMG! I’M SO NOT SURPRISED!!!!!!! I thought you reported news BG
lol
In terms of ‘Failure to provide an expungement option for retained data’, this is provided with GMail and it begs the question – ‘Why would we want it for search results?’ Recently in WIRED Magazine, they discussed the ‘Naked CEO’ – one who opens the doors of the company up to the public. One may think that having personal information about you available on the ‘net is a bad thing, but I think we all need to realize that we’re in a day and age that privacy on the ‘net is not necessarily a realistic goal any longer. From the standpoint of ‘free and limitless information’, one of the Internet’s primary goals when it was first created, not having said feature to unconditionally remove search results is a vital part of the evolution of the ‘net.
I totally agree Jibi. Our privacy is becoming less and less secure. If you don’t want someone to know where you’ve been on the net, don’t go there.