14 September 2007

Google recommends privacy standard

Google has recommended that a global privacy standard should be set down, in order to focus on how companies protect consumer data and whether users may be harmed by any information made available.

According to CNET News.com, the search engine's proposal is set to be presented by its global privacy counsel Peter Fleischer in a speech at a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation meeting.

Privacy issues are becoming an increasingly prominent feature of debates concerning the internet, with Facebook recently sparking security concerns following the announcement that users' details will be opened up to the web at large.

Google's proposal comes in the wake of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Privacy Framework, which, according to Mr Fleischer, has been endorsed by most of the APEC nations but not all. China, for instance, has not approved it.

The APEC Privacy Framework aims to promote a flexible working approach to information privacy protection for member countries, while avoiding the construction of unnecessary barriers to the flow of information.

In a telephone conference call noted in CNET News.com, Mr Fleischer commented: "Google believes we need to work together to create minimum global standards partly by law and partly by self-regulation."

He added that standards of privacy "should focus on actual harms to consumer privacy" and that, while "other countries have an ideological bent ... APEC has a pragmatic focus on privacy harms ... not abstractions".

The nine principles underlined by the privacy framework include preventing harm, integrity of personal information, notice and security safeguards.

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