Google Calls For International Privacy Standards

Sep 14, 2007 at 1:08pm ET by Danny Sullivan

Google is calling for a discussion on international privacy standards to take place, both through a blog post on its site today and in a speech that was given to a Unesco conference today. From the post by Peter Fleischer, Google’s global privacy counsel:

Google is calling for a discussion about international privacy standards which work to protect everyone’s privacy on the Internet. These standards must be clear and strong, mindful of commercial realities, and in line with oftentimes divergent political needs. Moreover, global privacy standards need to reflect technological realities, taking into account how quickly these realities can change.

Fleischer called the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Privacy Framework the “most promising foundation” to build upon. The APEC guidelines are followed by 21 Asian-Pacific countries, he writes, and were formed for “the internet age.”

Google proposes global privacy standard from News.com has some nice quotes, background and includes a privacy advocate calling the guidelines “the weakest international framework for privacy protection.”

Google also plans a virtual debate on YouTube, will participate in a global privacy commissioners meeting later this month, and CEO Eric Schmidt is promised to be vocal on the issue, the article says.

Danny Sullivan is editor-in-chief of Search Engine Land. He’s a widely cited authority on search engines and search marketing issues who has covered the space since 1996. Danny also oversees Search Engine Land’s SMX: Search Marketing Expo conference series, maintains a personal blog called Daggle and can be followed on Twitter here.

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WebOptimist, September 14th, 2007 at 1:44 pm ET:

Interesting that Google would be the one calling for this since they are raising the most eyebrows with so many of their latest releases - personalized search, Streetview, etc.

Personally, I don’t feel much will come from it. Google is going to do what it wants unless forced by law to do otherwise.

Who says Google isn’t into show biz?

;-)

Seth Finkelstein, September 15th, 2007 at 8:05 pm ET:

Good analysis here:

http://crookedtimber.org/2007/09/15/google-and-new-international-privacy-rules/

Google Calls For International Privacy Standards

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