Google en privacy
- op 18 juli 2005
- door Wessel
- in Commentaar
0
Kritiek op de privacyrisico’s van het alwetende Google is er genoeg, maar hoe gaat Google zelf met die kritiek om? Forbes licht een tipje van de sluier.
Tijdens de ontwikkeling wordt er al rekening mee gehouden (al is dat nauwelijks verifieerbaar):
Google says it takes privacy seriously. “In general, as a company, we look at privacy from design all the way (through) launch,” said Nicole Wong, an associate general counsel at Google.
Google luistert naar privacyorganisaties:
She also said that Google regularly seeks feedback from civil liberties groups such as the Center for Democracy and Technology and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, both of which credit Google for listening even if it doesn’t always agree.
En niet alle Google-medewerkers hebben toegang tot alle gegevens:
Google’s privacy statements specify that only some of its employees have access to personal data – on a need-to-know basis – and such access is logged to deter abuse.
Maar de bewaartermijn van gegevens is onbekend:
Because storage is cheap, data from these services can be retained practically forever, and Google won’t specify how long it keeps such information.
In an interview, Wong said Google had no set time limits on data retention; such determinations are left to individual product teams.
En Google mag gegevens leveren aan partners:
It also provides information to outside parties serving as Google’s agents – though they must first agree to uphold Google’s privacy policies.
Klopt de overheid wel eens aan? Ook dat is niet bekend:
Google says it releases data when required by law, but its privacy statements offer few details. Wong said Google doesn’t surrender data without a subpoena, court order or warrant. But she would not offer any details on how many requests it gets, or how often, and federal law bars Google from disclosing requests related to national security.
Gaat het wel eens fout? Zelfs zoekmachinedeskundigen kunnen zich geen incident herinneren:
“Everybody gets worried about what they (Google) could do but what they have done to date has not seemed to violate any privacy that anyone has documented,” said Danny Sullivan, editor of the online newsletter Search Engine Watch.
De conclusie van het artikel lijkt te zijn: we weten erg weinig hoe Google precies omgaat met privacy, maar zolang het niet aantoonbaar fout gaat, moeten we maar niet al te moeilijk doen. Uiteindelijk is vertrouwen het sleutelwoord, zo blijkt uit een artikel van News.com over hetzelfde onderwerp:
Trust is the key. As software industry analyst Stephen O’Grady wrote in his Tecosystems blog late last year: “Google is nearing a crossroads in determining its future path. They can take the Microsoft fork–and face the same scrutiny Microsoft does, or they can learn what the folks from Redmond have: Trust is hard to earn, easy to lose and nearly impossible to win back.”
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