Google and privacy – the US acts on suspect privacy behaviour
January 27, 2012 |
The United States Government has reacted strongly to reports about Google’s suspect privacy policy. In today’s Australian article US lawmakers demand answers on Google’s new privacy policy.
The problem arising out of Google and Facebook’s (see Sorry, friends) approach to privacy is that there is no real commitment to a right to privacy. That is fine as long as there are regulations to force compliance. The problem in America and, to a lesser degree, Australia is that the regulations are weak and often anaemically enforced. Until there is an egregious breach, in which case there is a flurry of activity. Until the next breach. This stop start approach to an ongoing issue makes for poor policy and worse practice.
The Economist has undertaken a very useful analysis of privacy regulation throughout the world in Private data, public rules.
