Google Calls for International Standards on Internet Privacy
Kristina Kirby
By Catherine Rampell
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, September 15, 2007; Page D01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/13/AR2007091302248.html
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Google, a frequent target of privacy advocates, yesterday called for
new international standards on the collection and use of consumer
data.
Peter Fleischer, global privacy counsel for Google, told a U.N.
audience in Strasbourg, France, that fragmentary international privacy
laws burden companies and don't protect consumers. He argued for an
international body such as the United Nations to create standards that
individual countries could then adopt and adapt to fit their needs.
"The ultimate goal should be to create minimum standards of privacy
protection that meet the expectations and demands of consumers,
businesses and governments," Fleischer said, according to a transcript
of the speech provided by Google.
Google has been criticized for its privacy policies and its planned
$3.1 billion merger with DoubleClick, an online advertising broker
that sells banner and video ads. To target their advertising, both
Google, which specializes in text ads, and DoubleClick collect
information on which sites users visit. Critics argue that the merger
would hurt competition in online advertising, and that it would
aggregate too much consumer data in the hands of one company.
The European Union is currently investigating Google's privacy
practices.
"Google, under investigation for violating global privacy standards,
is calling for international privacy standards," said Marc Rotenberg,
executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a
critic of the DoubleClick merger. "It's somewhat like someone being
caught for speeding saying there should be a public policy to regulate
speeding."
Google says it has remained at the forefront of protecting consumer
privacy. It was the first company to implement an expiration date for
collected data. Google strips identifying information from its search
logs after 18 months, the same standard that Microsoft now uses. Yahoo
and AOL keep user data for 13 months, and Ask.com announced in July
that it would give users an option to prevent its search engine from
recording search terms and IP addresses.
"The key concept is user control," said Alissa Cooper, a policy
analyst at the Center for Democracy and Technology, a privacy advocate
whose funding comes from foundations, corporations and trade
associations. The center is working with a group of U.S. firms,
including Google, to create national privacy protection standards for
the industry that it plans to submit to Congress.
Comprehensive legislation relating to privacy issues has not yet made
it through the full House or Senate. Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.), the
chairman of the Commerce subcommittee on consumer protection,
submitted a bill in February intended to increase consumer privacy
safeguards. In the Senate, Judiciary committee leaders Patrick Leahy
(D-Vt.) and Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) have also introduced a comprehensive
privacy bill.
In his speech, Fleischer criticized the U.S. privacy law model as
being "too complex and too much of a patchwork," because different
laws apply to different industries and vary by state. He called the
European Union model "too bureaucratic and inflexible."
Fleischer instead advocated something closer to the privacy framework
developed by the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, which
Fleischer said "balances very carefully information privacy with
business needs and commercial interests."
But critics say that the APEC standards are too lenient.
"The APEC guidelines are far below what Google would be expected to do
in Europe or the United States," Rotenberg said. They "don't address
the critical problem of limiting data collection, which is the key
point in the dispute over Google's business practices."
Rotenberg said that the APEC rules put the burden on consumers, who
must demonstrate that a company's privacy policy has harmed them.
Guidelines developed in 1980 by the Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development, an international body of developed
countries, generally focus on the violation of privacy as a right
rather than a demonstration of harm caused by the violation. These
standards, which influenced the European Union's privacy laws, are
usually preferred by privacy advocates.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/13/AR2007091302248.html