Watchdog tears into Google's privacy record

 

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By Stuart Turton

Posted on 18 Mar 2010 at 10:27

Several web giants, including Google, need to "step up" on privacy, according to an outgoing Federal Trade Commissioner.

Pamela Jones Harbour plans to leave the US Federal Trade Commission next month, and has ensured her passing will be well marked by ripping into the attitude of web giants towards consumer privacy.

Google in particular was singled out for criticism, after its Buzz social-networking service exposed users' Gmail contacts. A public outcry brought a swift revamp of the service, but Harbour accused Google of "irresponsible conduct" in handling the affair.

Google consistently tells the public to 'just trust us.'. Based on my observations, I do not believe consumer privacy played any significant role in the release of Buzz

"Google consistently tells the public to 'just trust us,'" she said during an FTC privacy workshop, which was reported by IDG. "But based on my observations, I do not believe consumer privacy played any significant role in the release of Buzz."

Harbour went on to suggest that web companies were being encouraged by the failure of watchdogs to crackdown when privacy was breached by failed experiments.

"I realise that companies continue to take a testing-the-water approach to privacy because no regulatory agency has sent a clear message that this behavior is unacceptable," she said.

Privacy growing pains

"I am especially concerned that technology companies are learning harmful lessons from each other's attempts to push the privacy envelope.

"Even the most respected and popular online companies, the ones who claim to respect privacy, continue to launch products where the guiding privacy policy seems to be, 'Throw it up against the wall and see if it sticks.'"

Speaking at the event, Google spokesman Brian Richardson defended the company's conduct in launching Buzz. "When we realised that we had unintentionally made users unhappy, we worked quickly to make immediate changes," he told the workshop.

"You cannot incubate social products in a Petri dish, or suddenly announce a fully baked product," he added. "If you look at any company that's been successful in this space, it's because they have been able to iterate, refine, listen, stumble, get back up, and dust themselves off."