Almighty Google May Not Be So Almighty for Long
June 9, 2007 by Susan Gunelius
Filed under Marketing
Google is considered to be one of the strongest brands in the world, but lately that brand has come under attack. Today, London-based Privacy International released a report on the privacy practices of the internet’s top sites stating Google had received their lowest possible grade, which is typically reserved for companies with, “comprehensive consumer surveillance and entrenched hostility to privacy.” Ouch. That doesn’t sound good.
Twenty-two companies were analyzed for the study including Yahoo Inc., Microsoft Corp. and AOL. According to Privacy International, none of those companies comes close to Google to, “achieving status as an endemic threat to privacy.” Double ouch. That doesn’t sound good at all.
Naturally, Google objects to this rating as well as the three consumer groups in the United States who are currently pressuring lawmakers to make Google change its privacy policies. In response to the negative publicity, Google announced in March that it will start erasing information about its users’ searches within 18-24 months. In the meantime, they’ll keep analyzing that data to help its search engine better understand its users thereby delivering more relevant results and advertisements. That’s really nice of them, but until I start typing in a query term on Google and get exactly what I’m looking for in the top ten results every time (or at least 50% of the time), their analysis of data from users doesn’t really seem to be helping. I think I’d rather have privacy.
It turns out Google isn’t the only company that got a bad report card from Privacy International, but they did get the worst. Seven internet companies and websites received the second lowest grade of, “substantial and comprehensive privacy threats,” including Time Warner Inc.’s AOL, Apple Inc., Facebook.com, Hi5.com, Reunion.com, Microsoft’s Windows Live Space and Yahoo.
While none of the companies reviewed received Privacy International’s highest grade, five rated as, “generally privacy-aware,” including BBC, eBay Inc., Last.fm, LiveJournal.com and Wikipedia.com. I’m glad a few companies and websites are “generally privacy-aware.” That makes me feel a lot better. Of course, I’m being facetious.
While Windows Live Space received the 5th rating, Substantial Threat, Microsoft as a company received the 4th level – Serious Lapses in privacy practices.
It was also acknowledged that Microsoft as well as some other companies are taking steps to improve their privacy policies.
Thank you for visiting, Thomas. I followed the link in your name to your blog, and I really enjoyed your post about the Privacy International report. It’s great to read an opinion from someone with your experience!
Susan – I am glad that you enjoyed my post on the report. As a worker in the technology industry, privacy and security are issues that I find important.
Another post I wrote that you might find intersting is a post I did on privacy issues comparing Google Maps and Microsoft Live Search Street Level imaging. http://scissormonkey.wordpress.com/2007/06/02/google-maps-street-view-vs-microsoft-live-search-preview/
Google has also come under fire lately for posting images of street level views that inlcude people performing everyday tasks. Even though legally we do not actually have the right to privacy when we are in public, there is the expectation of privacy. When we find images of ourselves posted online without or knowledge we feel violated.
Yes, Google has been getting a lot of negative publicity from those street level images. The image of the man picking his nose is all over the internet. I definitely think Google has gone too far with these pictures!