Two BIG pieces of privacy news this week
Both Facebook (again!) and Google (again!) have been in the news this week facing accusations of breaching privacy laws.
In Canada a privacy group called, the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic listed 22 separate breaches of Canadian privacy law. Not bad!!! Facebook denied the accusations. The BBC did a good report on this that is worth reading.
Also worth reading is the news that even Peter Fleischer, Google’s own Privacy Counsel, thinks that elements of Google’s own privacy policy are “vague” and need to be made more precise. Two of these elements include:
- When we use third parties to assist us in processing your personal information, we require that they comply with our Privacy Policy and any other appropriate confidentiality and security measures.
- We may also share information with third parties in limited circumstances, including when complying with legal process, preventing fraud or imminent harm, and ensuring the security of our network and services.
This is really interesting because in our experience most privacy policies are written in similar language. So maybe Mr Fleischer’s comments are more good PR than anything else. Good thing too as a few days later Google’s privacy policies hit the news again when privacy groups in California accused Google of breaching Californian law by not having a link to its privacy policy from their main search screen. Years ago Google came as a breath of fresh air into search namely because of the lack of clutter! Google argue that its easy enough to find their privacy policy if you want to see it.
Useful Links
- Google's Privacy Policy
- This link takes you to the home of Google's Privacy Policy. There is a lot of reading available, but it is pretty well laid out.
- Privacy Rights Clearing House
- One of the Californian groups accusing Google of breaching the law of that State.
- Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic
- The group accusing Facebook of breaching Canadian law.
Tags: Data Protection, Facebook, Google, Privacy