Google disregarding privacy, say officials from 10 nations

Google has violated the principle that “individuals should be able to control the use of their personal information”, say officials from 10 major nations. They have demanded to know how the internet giant will meet concerns about its use of public data in future.

Britain’s Information Commissioner Christopher Graham along with officials from Canada, France and Germany have signed a letter addressed to Google’s chief exeutive, condemning the manner in which the firm has delivered its Streetview mapping service and its Buzz product, The Telegraph reported Thursday.

They called on the company to spell out how it will meet concerns about the use of public data in the future.

It said Google has “violated the fundamental principle that individuals should be able to control the use of their personal information”.

The Buzz launch had sparked protests as it took information about email users’ most common correspondents and automatically built each individual a network of followers. This meant that links which people wished to keep private could immediately become public, the media report said.

Google, however, said that it has set right the problems that caused Buzz users concern.

The company stated: “We have discussed all these issues publicly many times before and have nothing to add to today’s letter. Of course we do not get everything 100 percent right. We try very hard to be upfront about the data we collect, and how we use it, as well as to build meaningful controls into our products.”

The officials from 10 nations also observed that Google Streetview was causing “concern about the adequacy of the information (Google) provides before the images are captured”.