May 12, 2011 at 9:01am ET by Matt McGee

As part of a series of updates to its user and search privacy options, Blekko says it will hold on to personal data for only 48 hours -- substantially less than major search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo. Blekko, like other search engines, creates a record of visits that typically includes a searcher's IP address, location, browser, language, the date and time of the visit and similar information. Beginning today, Blekko says it will delete that personal search information within 48 hours. And if you're logged in to your Blekko account while searching, Blekko says it won't keep a rec [...]

Related Topics: Blekko | Channel: Consumer | Legal: Privacy

Google Threatens To Pull Street View From Switzerland; Will Launch In Poland

May 11, 2011 at 2:07pm ET by Matt McGee

Google has appealed a recent Swiss court decision that requires the company to guarantee 100% anonymity of faces and license plates in its Street View imagery, and says it may cut the service altogether in Switzerland if the ruling isn't changed. According to the Wall Street Journal, Google attorney Peter Fleischer told reporters, "We simply cannot comply with the current terms of the court. If the ruling is not amended, we will not have any choice but to pull Google Street View services from Switzerland." Fleischer says Google will appeal the ruling to Switzerland's highest court. In [...]

Police Raid Google’s Korean Office Over Location Data

May 3, 2011 at 9:48am ET by Greg Sterling

Police apparently raided Google's Korean offices in Seoul "on suspicion its mobile advertising unit AdMob had illegally collected location data without consent," according to a Bloomberg report. This is the most extreme action taken by any government in the growing controversy over smartphone location data -- essentially criminalizing data collection. In the US Apple and Google have both been sued in private class actions and members of Congress are calling for testimony and investigations. Latest Google Headache in Korea The is merely the latest legal challenge for Google in South Korea. [...]

Legal Woes Mount For Google: “Locationgate,” Skyhook Suit And FTC-Search Probe

May 2, 2011 at 8:17am ET by Greg Sterling

Following the revelation last week that the iPhone stored user location data a consumer class action was filed. This kind of disclosure/revelation-class action cycle is now familiar. And because Google also collects location data it is now also the subject of a similar class action (Brown et al v. Google) seeking $50 million in damages. Google says it captures user location data only on an opt-in, consensual basis. Where Are the Damages? As a former lawyer who did a fair amount of plaintiff-side litigation in my past I'm sympathetic to the consumer class action and believe that it has bee [...]

Apple, Google In Privacy Hot Water Over “Locationgate”

Apr 25, 2011 at 8:01am ET by Greg Sterling

Apple and Google are helping intensify an already intense digital privacy debate with last week's revelations that both companies' mobile software track your movements in detail without your affirmative consent. This morning the Wall Street Journal reported that the iPhone stores user location data even when location-services are entirely turned off: Apple Inc.'s iPhone is collecting and storing location information even when location services are turned off, according to a test conducted by The Wall Street Journal. The location data appear to be collected using cellphone towers and Wi-Fi [...]

Belgium Launches Investigation Of Google WiFi Data Collection

Apr 21, 2011 at 5:30pm ET by Matt McGee

While some countries have already completed their investigations, Belgium is just now launching a probe into Google's collection of Wifi data over unsecured WiFi networks. According to the Flemish newspaper De Morgen, Belgian data protection officials believe Google is guilty of a "flagrant violation of privacy protection laws." A Bloomberg report says the Belgian privacy committee passed its findings to government prosecutors because the committee doesn't have the power to fine Google. Google has previously admitted that its Street View cars accidentally collected personal data via une [...]

Dutch Agency Orders Google To Remove Data About Citizens’ WiFi Routers

Apr 19, 2011 at 3:27pm ET by Matt McGee

Dutch data officials have ordered Google to give the country's residents a way to remove data that Google has about where their WiFi routers are located. It's part of the ongoing dispute over Google's collection of personal information via unencrypted wifi networks -- something the company has said all along was accidental. According to the Associated Press, Google has already deleted the data that it collected in The Netherlands (as it's also done in some other countries). But the Dutch Data Protection Agency (DPA) says Google's knowledge and use of where those WiFi networks are located "s [...]

How Google Instant’s Autocomplete Suggestions Work

Apr 6, 2011 at 6:27pm ET by Danny Sullivan

It's a well known feature of Google. Start typing in a search, and Google offers suggestions before you've even finished typing. But how does Google come up with those suggestions? When does Google remove some suggestions? When does Google decide not to interfere? Come along for some answers. Google & Search Suggestions Google was not the first search engine to offer search suggestions, nor it is the only one. But being the most popular search engine has caused many to look at Google's suggestions more closely. Google has been offering "Google Suggest" or "Autocomplete" on the Google [...]

Into The Lion’s Den: Microsoft Launching Streetside In Germany

Apr 6, 2011 at 3:43pm ET by Matt McGee

Hoping to avoid the problems that have plagued Google's Street View service, Microsoft says it will launch its version -- Streetside -- in Germany next month. Microsoft Germany tells Deutsche Welle that Streetside vehicles will begin driving in four cities (Nuremberg, Furth, Erlangen and Augsburg) on May 9th. The images should be online sometime this summer. Eventually, Streetside cars will photograph about 50 German cities in the next 18 months. Google has had all kinds of problems with its Street View service in Germany. Some towns tried blocking Street View almost as soon as Google an [...]

Swiss Court Demands 100% Anonymity In Google Street View Photographs

Apr 4, 2011 at 2:19pm ET by Matt McGee

A Swiss court says Google must make sure all faces and license plates are blurred on Google Street View, even if Google has to blur them by hand. That's one of several pieces of the Swiss Federal Administrative Court decision handed down today, and the one that's likely causing the most disappointment at Google. The company's automated blurring technology blurs about 98-99% of faces and license plates, and Google recently argued that manual blurring of all Street View imagery would be prohibitively expensive. (Imagine, for example, if other countries followed suit with a similar demand [...]

Schmidt & Privacy: Google Anyone Other Than Me

Apr 1, 2011 at 5:14pm ET by Chris Sherman

Google CEO and soon to be Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt has made a number of interesting and often controversial statements about privacy. While the official line from Google is that the company is fully committed to respecting the privacy of others, Schmidt has seemingly contradicted that, at one time saying "There is what I call the creepy line," he said at an event at the Newseum. "The Google policy on a lot of things is to get right up to the creepy line and not cross it." Schmidt also offered advice about how to protect your online privacy: He told CNBC Anchor Maria Bartiromo, o [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Employees | Legal: Privacy

Twenty Year FTC “Privacy Audit” Intended To Punish, Make Example Of Google

Mar 30, 2011 at 1:35pm ET by Greg Sterling

As you read earlier the US Federal Trade Commission concluded its investigation of Google over the company's supposedly "deceptive privacy practices in Google's rollout of its Buzz social network." My view after talking to people at Google following the Buzz launch is that Google was not intentionally seeking to deceive users. Rather it was overzealous with the rollout and underestimated how strongly people would feel about privacy. Not Worse than Facebook There's nothing more egregious here than comparable privacy screw-ups Facebook has made in the past. Google Buzz was a botched rollout wi [...]

Google Settles FTC Charges Over Buzz, Agrees To 20 Years Of Privacy Audits

Mar 30, 2011 at 10:39am ET by Barry Schwartz

Google has agreed to have independent privacy audits over the next 20 years, to settle an FTC investigation into wrong doing over its Google Buzz product. The FTC has release a statement where Google agreed to allow independent audits of how Google handles privacy controls. After Google Buzz launched there was a lot of concern of the privacy controls, which lead to an FTC investigation. Google eventually settled for $8.5 million with a few plaintiffs and lawyers. Now, Google has been charged by the Federal Trade Commission for using "deceptive tactics and violated its own privacy promi [...]

Google Joins Forces With MasterCard On NFC To Test The Future Of Digital Marketing, Analytics

Mar 28, 2011 at 6:55am ET by Greg Sterling

Google's Gingerbread (Android 2.3) offers near field communication (NFC) support, which can be used for both "contactless payments" and marketing purposes. People tend to think about and discuss NFC in the context of "mobile wallets" and payments exclusively but there's a great deal more it can do. For example, Google has been testing NFC-based marketing in Portland with window decals for small businesses. The idea there is touch the phone (Nexus S) to the window decal and get a bunch of information about the business (e.g., Google Place page data). Big Plans for NFC Beyond Payme [...]

Google, Connecticut-led Coalition Agree To Negotiate WiFi Data Collection Issues

Jan 28, 2011 at 6:49pm ET by Matt McGee

Google and the Connecticut-led coalition of 40 US states will avoid court and begin negotiations that are aimed at settling issues related to Google's collection of personal data over unsecured WiFi networks. In a press release issued today (PDF), newly-elected Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen says the coalition will not pursue a demand issued last month that Google produce the data it had collected. The previous AG, Richard Blumenthal, had hinted that he would consider legal action if Google resisted giving over the data. According to today's announcement, Google has made a fe [...]

Upstart DuckDuckGo Challenges Google With Strong Privacy, Cool Tools & Quackpot Name

Jan 26, 2011 at 4:55pm ET by Chris Sherman

Here at Search Engine Land we regularly hear from people who have created "radical," innovative," "next generation" search technology, promising to "fix" the "broken" search we all allegedly pitifully struggle with today. In virtually every instance that I can remember, these promises over-hype and under-deliver, rarely offering something that becomes part of my regular search arsenal. But the bizarrely-named DuckDuckGo is different, for a number of reasons. First and foremost, it's actually a very good search engine—and it truly can do useful things. Second, the creator of DuckDuckGo has [...]

Browsers To Offer Official Behavioral Targeting Blocking

Jan 25, 2011 at 9:02am ET by Barry Schwartz

Yesterday, Google and Firefox announced new tools to block behavioral targeting across the web. Behavioral targeting are a form of ads that use your online behavior to target specific ads to you, as you browse the web. Google calls these interest based advertising but most of the web calls them behavioral targeting. Google released a new Chrome extension named Keep My Opt-Outs. The extension helps block some of the personalized advertising and related data tracking performed by companies. I should note, Google has an older Chrome extension named IAB Opt Out that blocked Google's inter [...]

German Govt. Says Google Analytics Now Verboten

Jan 12, 2011 at 7:59pm ET by Matt McGee

In a move that could harm its country's own businesses, Germany is targeting Google on privacy issues again -- this time over Google Analytics. German privacy officials are concerned that Google Analytics tracks web users' IP addresses, and that could violate an individual's privacy. According to German news site The Local, Johannes Caspar, data protection commissioner in Hamburg, told a German newspaper that tracking IP addresses of web users should be illegal. Since it's not, German officials are threatening to levy a "steep fine" against German companies that continue to use Google Analy [...]

South Korea May Arrest Google Execs Over WiFi Data Collection

Jan 6, 2011 at 1:46pm ET by Matt McGee

South Korean police are planning to file criminal charges against Google executives over the collection of personal data via unsecured wifi networks. According to IDG News/PCWorld, the country's national police agency has determined that Google acted illegally when it gathered personal data as part of its Street View mapping service. A police official says they're interviewing Google officials in South Korea, but wouldn't confirm if arrests are expected. Police say they plan to file criminal charges against the Google executives that ordered the data collection, but that may never happe [...]

Google Buzz Faces New Lawsuit In Canada

Jan 5, 2011 at 3:06pm ET by Matt McGee

While Google has settled US lawsuits over its Google Buzz product, the company faces a new -- and very similar -- lawsuit originating in Canada. The Winnipeg Free Press reports that Tyler Wereha of Rosa, Manitoba, is suing Google over privacy issues related to last year's Google Buzz launch. The class-action lawsuit doesn't specify damages. Based on what the Free Press is reporting, the lawsuit appears to be raising the same issues brought up in last year's US cases: The statement of claim, filed in Manitoba Court of Queen's Bench last week, alleges anyone who has exchanged at least one [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | Google: Buzz | Google: Legal | Legal: Privacy

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