Google is a big target. When the dominant search firm introduces new services, privacy advocates and regulators take notice because Google’s servers collect data on millions of users. As Datamation reports, Google has joined the growing social networking craze with gusto, but hasn’t always made it obvious how much data it’s collecting along the way. Regulators are starting to take notice.
A global coalition of 10 privacy regulators is chiding Google for taking a lackluster approach to protecting its users’ privacy, singling out the recent launch of the Buzz social networking service as the latest in a string of product rollouts in which the company appeared to treat privacy as an afterthought.
Led by Canadian Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart, the officials have delivered a letter to Google CEO Eric Schmidt that asks the company to scale down the amount of data it collects about its users and provide more transparent notice about how that information will be used.
“We are increasingly concerned that, too often, the privacy rights of the world’s citizens are being forgotten as Google rolls out new technological applications,” they wrote.
