EU Questions Google Privacy Policy

An anonymous reader writes "The BBC is running a piece noting that the EU is scrutinizing Google's privacy policy this month. The company's policy of keeping search information on their servers for up to two years may be violating EU privacy laws. A data protection group that advises the European Union has written to the search giant to express concerns. The EU has a wide range of privacy protections that set limits to what information corporations may collect and what they may or may not do with it. In the US on the other hand privacy laws generally cover government actions while the business sector remains largely unregulated. Is it perhaps time to follow the European example and extend privacy laws to include corporations?"

Re:the obvious question:

[Anonymous Coward]

Google does business in the EU.

Re:The EU? The European Union?

[da_matta]

The important difference in this is that the data stored by ISP's is for law enforcement purposes and requires a court order for access. There are also very strict regulations about who/why/when can access and how to log that access. Google and other companies store and use data to make profit with very little regulation.

Re:Absolutely not.

[Anonymous Coward]

Some people have a dislike for corporations, I'm not one of them.

You should and this is coming from a pro-capitalist, Ayn Rand fanboy. If you libel Disney, you can be sued at the cost of a small fortune. If Equifax libels you (your finanical status), they have government-granted immunity. Tough cookies. This is one example of the numerous anti-freedom, anti-capitalist, asymmetric abuses that corporations successfully lobby through government. Granted, it is the people's fault for letting this happen, that is no less a reason to hate the trigger men.

Re:Absolutely not.

[VJ42]

I much rather have a legal mechanism that requires them to tell me what data they have about me if I ask, and enables me to have it removed, then not

Say what you like about privacy here in the UK, but we have the data protection act, which does exactly that (if I give them aproximate times and places, I can even make people trawl through CCTV footage and show me any pictures of me they have). And if I don't want info x to be on the database of company y, then I can tell them to remove it.

Re:the obvious question:

[julesh]

Google is a US corporation. Of what concern are European privacy laws to it?

The concern is over the fact that they trade with people in the EU. US corporations that trade in the EU are required to follow EU laws; if they aren't, they may be fined by the EU (e.g. Microsoft), and if they do not pay their fines to the EU then they face having any of their property that is within the EU confiscated. This would include any money in transit from their European customers to them.