It’s all over the news, the blogosphere, the web. Google, the search engine giant as we know it, was ranked the lowest as to protecting the privacy of its users is concerned. This finding by Privacy International is based on six month research, placing Google at the bottom of 23 internet companies, including Microsoft, Yahoo, and AOL. Google is the only company among those included in the study to receive a failing grade for “conducting comprehensive consumer surveillance and having entrenched hostility to privacy.”
“We are aware that the decision to place Google at the bottom of the ranking is likely to be controversial, but throughout our research, we have found numerous deficiencies and hostilities in Google’s approach to privacy that go well beyond those of other organizations,” Privacy International said.
Google, on the other hand, has publicly refuted the report as inaccurate. “We are disappointed with Privacy International’s report, whichi is based on numerous inaccuracies and misunderstandings about our services”, Google’s deputy general counsel, Nicole Wong, said.
Privacy International is a London-based privacy NGO that provides technology asessement, develops reviews of policy, and acts as a watchdog on surveillance by governments and corporations. The full report, A Race to the Bottom – Privacy Ranking of Internet Service Companies, can be found here.
Originally posted on June 11, 2007 @ 7:26 am