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A watchdog group ( Privacy International ) came out with a report on Saturday that says that Google's privacy practices are the worst of any of the Internet's top destinations.
London-based Privacy International gave Google its lowest score possible in a category that is kept for companies with "comprehensive consumer surveillance and entrenched hostility to privacy."
Out of 23 companies which were surveyed, Google was the only one with the bottom of the barrel score, which is no surprise to myself.
While 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, Google said it aggressively protects its users' privacy and stands 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.
"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 earlier this month, but didn't receive a response, said Simon Davies, the group's director.
The scathing report is just 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.
Google also has a few consumer groups in the United States hot on its ass what with the proposed buyout of DoubleClick, which as you more than likely know has a nasty habit of tracking users Internet surfing habits. This is a $3.1 billion buyout and it really doesn't need to be approved by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission because this most certainly is not in the consumers best interest in any way, shape, or form.
To shut the critics of this deal up, Google has said that they will start erasing user's search request info within 18 to 24 months. Sorry Google, that's not enough. 18 to 24 months? Why the year and a half wait to begin this?
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.
Bullshit! I would suggest that those of you who use Google do as I do. Erase the Google 'cookies' after you have finished your surfing, emailing, or instant messaging. Their cookies do not expire for quite some time.
