Google Slated Over Privacy Policy Visibility
July 2nd, 2010 by adminGoogle has been attacked over the visibility of its privacy policy as privacy advocates have expressed more concerns that the search engine is not operating in compliance with Californian law.
Last week Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, received a letter from several privacy organisations who had joined forces. It is believed that the letter stated that the privacy advocates were alarmed that Google was not displaying its privacy policy in a highly visible manner.
The signatories collected to protest against the location of Google’s privacy policy included the Electronic Privacy Information Centre, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
The issue regarding the visibility of Google’s privacy policy as it relates to Californian law is unclear and it is yet to be formerly decided whether Google is operating in compliance with the law. The new concerns were raised after an article was published in the New York Times which questioned the search engines observance of the California Online Privacy Protection Act.
The above law requires all commercial websites to place their privacy policy in a highly visible position on the website where that website collects and stores user’s personal data.
Currently, Google’s privacy policy is not on its home page, but instead is two clicks away.
Even though Google has been highly criticised by privacy campaigners, Google has tried to simplify its privacy policy to make it easier for users to read and understand before they use its services.
In a news conference, the privacy advocates admitted that they had not, at any point, endeavoured to reach an agreement with Google directly.
