[A2k] FT:Google to call for web privacy shake-up

[Michelle Childs]

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http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d969a326-6226-11dc-bdf6-0000779fd2ac.html
Google to call for web privacy shake-up

By Maija Palmer in London

Published: September 14 2007 02:27 | Last updated: September 14 2007
02:27

Google will on Friday attempt to take the high ground in the debate
over internet privacy, by calling for new international laws to be
set up to protect personal information online. An international body
such as the United Nations or the OECD should draw up new guidelines,
Peter Fleischer, global privacy counsel for Google will tell Unesco
members at a conference in Strasbourg on Friday.

Google has become a focal point for a debate on internet privacy
since European Union data protection bodies earlier this year
questioned the length of time the company kept data on individuals
using its search engine. Google was also criticised by Privacy
International, the human rights group, as being potentially =93hostile=94
to privacy.

Since then, Google has taken steps to improve its image. It agreed to
limit the time it keeps search data to just 18 months, and has
started working with Privacy International in order to be removed
from the organisation=92s blacklist.

Going further on the offensive, Mr Fleischer on Friday will say he
believes existing internet privacy rules are out of date. The OECD=92s
guidelines on privacy and personal data, for example, were set up in
1980, well before the invention of the internet, and even the
European Commission directive on privacy dates back to 1995, when the
internet was still in its infancy.

=93Privacy laws have not kept up with the reality of the internet and
technology, where we have vast amounts of information and every time
a credit card is used online, the data on it can move across six or
seven countries in a matter of minutes,=94 Mr Fleischer told the
Financial Times ahead of his speech.

Eric Schmidt, chief executive of Google, is expected to add his voice
to the campaign over the next few weeks.

Google is proposing that the privacy framework adopted in Asia by
ministers at the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation conference in
2004 could be used as a basis of a broader, international agreement.
The Apec agreement is relatively loose, setting out general
principles, such as notifying individuals when their data is
collected, but leaving enforcement up to individual countries.

Simon Davies, director of Privacy International, said: =93There seems
to be a perceptible shift within the company. Over the past few
months it seems that senior people have understood that privacy
issues can affect the value of the company.=94

Mr Davies said the steps Google was taking were =93symbolically huge
and significant, but whether they have any meaning beyond that, no
one can yet tell=94.

Analysts say it is crucial for Google to maintain an impeccable
reputation on privacy, or it may begin losing users.

A number of smaller search engine companies are already using the
recent concerns over Google=92s data policies as an opportunity to
poach users.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007

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Michelle Childs
Head of European Affairs
Knowledge Ecology International
michelle.childs@keionline.org