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Google Government Privacy Your Rights Online

FTC To Monitor Google's Privacy Practices For 20 Years 51

Posted by Soulskill from the settling-in-for-a-long-stakeout dept.
Rambo Tribble writes "As reported in TPM, the Federal Trade Commission has reached an agreement (PDF) with Google that will include the agency monitoring the company's privacy practices for the next 20 years. Whither, Facebook?" Oddly enough, another article details a surge in government requests for user information from Google. In a blog post, the company explained that they wanted to provide more transparency with regard to government requests, and have updated their Government Requests tool to do so.
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FTC To Monitor Google's Privacy Practices For 20 Years More

FTC To Monitor Google's Privacy Practices For 20 Years

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  • Please choose one of the following...
    a) Post all information about government request so everyone knows the government is suspicious of you.
    b) Keep all request private so we don't know the government is suspicious of you.

  • Where are they going to find the money to do that? Are they going to trace every cable and wireless signal into the hidden closet where they keep all their drives? And when are we going to start monitoring the government?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by bws111 ( 1216812 )

      What are you talking about? It is a once every two year audit of privacy practices, probably not unlike audits for SOX compliance, ISO 9000 compliance, etc.

      What is your privacy policy?
      Do users have to opt-in to services that reveal private information? Show me the records of who opted in and who didn't.
      How do you protect users data? Show me how that is implemented.
      How do you ensure privacy is protected when new apps are developed? Here is random app 'x' - show me the privacy controls.

      That sort of thing

  • A quick (and ironic?) Google search would have revealed that these terms were reached and disclosed this past March. [infoworld.com]

  • Every internet/media company should be subject to the same legal standards of privacy as the others, and all companies should be monitored for compliance.

    Canada has had federal laws regarding information privacy since 1985. http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/P-21/index.html [justice.gc.ca]

    It's probably due for some updating, but there is legislation in place that these companies are required to abide by if they want to serve the Canadian market.

  • Given what's being listed elsewhere on the front page regarding advertising based on your purchasing history I'd like to know who's going to be monitoring the privacy practices of the credit card companies.

  • Will Google still be around in 20 years?

    I bet 10 Euro on "no".

    ( If I calculated the odds correctly, that could win me 100,000 Euro in 20 years. Which might be enough for a coffee and a bagel, POSSIBLY with jam, if I calculated the odds for the Euro collapsing correct )

  • In pre-Internet years, that's like going back to the founding of Western Union and saying you'll watch them for the next 200 years, as if anything done today will really be relevant then. Even the concept of privacy will radically change by then. Also by then, Google could be the next Yahoo used-to-be by then. Anyone wanna buy a company with the FTC's hand up its ass?

  • Personally, I can't recall Google doing anything too egregious with user data, and they seem to be able to secure it, so I've been comfortable enough using their services. The FTC, while a bureaucracy that may have a bark worse than its bite, seems to at least be trying to do good with net neutrality and such. Letting the FTC vet anything that passes Google's own muster seems like a major win for consumers, and subsequently Google, as this should instill a bit more trust.

  • and see how many there are....

    (Crickets)

  • Is google paying for time, resources and labor to monitor for the next 20 years, or is this tax dollars at work?

    I'd imagine keeping tabs on a company as expansive as google is expensive. I don't know who to be mad at; the government for intervening, or google for being a burden to the taxpayer.

    If the FTC thinks google isn't playing nice with privacy, FINE them to cover the costs. If they aren't doing something wrong or worthy of penalty, get out of their business and let them run.

    • Well, what the FTC discovered when they investigated was that Google had stepped over the line, but had already recognized it and put policies in place to address the issues, policies which exceeded what the FTC would have imposed. That being the case they couldn't really justify a lot of fines or any significant interventions, so they fell back on "okay, we'll watch you for 20 years".

      As for who's paying, I don't know, but I doubt it costs that much. They don't really have to monitor everything Google d

  • I trust Google more than I trust FTC. At least Google has competition. FTC will sway whichever way the bought and paid for regulators will sway. What if we get another one like Michael Power as FTC chair? He famously said that he doesn't need to hire engineers because he can ask a CEO of any tech company what he needs to know.

  • hmm (Score:1)

    by amalek ( 615708 )
    Id suspect its little more than a PR exercise for Google. They can now hold up their hands and say "hey, were working with auditors for two decades in making sure we do no evil". How things change.

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