Investigation Of Google By FTC
As Originally Posted to The Wall Street Journal
A privacy group has asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate whether Google Inc. has built adequate privacy protections into its software services, such as Gmail and the company's word-processing and spreadsheet offering, Google Docs.
The Electronic Privacy Information Center filed the complaint Tuesday, a few weeks after Google admitted to accidentally sharing a small number of documents with users who lacked the permission to see them. The Washington, D.C., public-policy group has successfully prodded the FTC to make companies such as Microsoft Corp. change their privacy and security practices.
Separately, Google said that Dennis Woodside, a vice president, will succeed former Americas Operations head Tim Armstrong, who is leaving to become the new chief of Time Warner Inc.'s AOL. Mr. Woodside, 40 years old, has managed Google's relationships with big European advertisers and agencies as vice president for the U.K., Benelux and Ireland, one of the company's biggest revenue-generating units outside the U.S.
In a statement, Omid Kordestani, Google's senior vice president of global sales and business development, said Mr. Woodside's "combination of entrepreneurialism and operational excellence" make him well-suited to take on the position. Mr. Woodside will be responsible for maintaining Google's relationships with the large U.S. advertisers from which it is trying to lure more business.
Meanwhile, Google was delivered a fresh attack from a privacy group that argues that using online software hosted by big technology companies such as Google, as opposed to software that runs on individual computers, raises a number of privacy concerns.
In particular, EPIC is asking the FTC to require Google to revise its terms of service to better explain its obligations to protect the data it obtains. EPIC Executive Director Marc Rotenberg said in an interview that he doesn't believe that Google is being upfront with consumers about the risks of using its online software, which is becoming more mainstream.
"It's an opportunity to let the commission look at the issue more closely, and I think Google is the right place to start," Mr. Rotenberg said.
A spokesman for Google said in a statement that the company hadn't yet reviewed the complaint in detail but had policies and technology "to ensure the highest levels" of data protection. "We're highly aware of how important our users' data is to them and take our responsibility very seriously," he said.
The complaint comes as Google has ramped up efforts to sell government technology officials on the benefits of upgrading their current systems to use "cloud computing" software applications such as Gmail. It also comes as the FTC, now under control of Democrats, has signaled its interest in taking a tougher stance regarding online privacy.
