GOOGLE IN EUROPE – PRIVACY CONTROVERSIES CONTINUE

In March 2010, we posted on a New York Times article which explored how Google’s quest to increase access to information via the internet appeared to be clashing with European privacy laws. The article followed in the wake of the prosecution in Italy of Google executives for violating Italian privacy laws after Google allowed a user to post a video showing an autistic boy being bullied. More recently, further controversies over Google’s record on privacy rights have emerged. First, privacy regulators from a number of different countries, including our own Information Commissioner, Christopher Graham, wrote a joint letter to Google’s chief executive and challenging him to improve protections for users, thereby highlighting concerns that Google is not doing enough to protect the privacy of users – see further this article in the Guardian dated 20 April 2010. Second, last week reports emerged that German regulators had renewed their criticism of Google’s Streetview when it emerged that Google was using the Streetview system to archive information about the location of household wireless networks – see this article in the New York Times dated 29 April 2010. What these developments suggest is that the clash between European social values and the expansion of Google’s techno-commercial empire is likely to continue for some time to come.