Google Douses Privacy Fire

Recent remarks by Google CEO Eric Schmidt in a CNBC interview have set off a firestorm among privacy advocates.

The controversy has even prompted Asa Dotzler, community development manager for Mozilla -- which depends on Google for revenue -- to recommend Microsoft's Bing search engine as an alternative to Google.

"People are treating Google like their most trusted friend," said CNBC's Maria Bartiromo in the interview. "Should they be?"

Passing on the opportunity to explain to Bartiromo the difference between trusted friends and multi-billion dollar search advertising companies, Schmidt responded, "I think judgment matters. ...If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place. If you really need that kind of privacy, the reality is that search engines--including Google--do retain this information for some time. And it's important, for example, that we are all subject in the United States to the Patriot Act and it is possible that all that information could be made available to the authorities."

Schmidt's remarks about the availability of search data to law enforcement demands have been seized on by privacy advocates as evidence of overall disregard for privacy on the part of both Schmidt and Google. Divorced from the context of the conversation, his statement sounds to critics like a reiteration of the commonly cited and just as commonly refuted pro-surveillance argument that those who have nothing to hide have nothing to fear.

"I think that the thing that bothers me most about Google CEO Eric Schmidt's comment is that it makes clear that he simply doesn't understand privacy," said Doztler in a blog post on Thursday. "That a company with so much user data on its servers is led by someone who just doesn't understand privacy is really scary to me and it should be scary to you as well."

The Electronic Frontier Foundation made a similar observation. "Unfortunately, Schmidt's statement makes it seem as if Google, a company that claims to care about privacy, is not even concerned enough to understand basic lessons about privacy and why it's important on so many levels -- from protection against shallow embarrassments to the preservation of freedom and human rights," the cyber rights group said on Thursday.

Google says such criticism takes Schmidt's remarks out of context.

"The context in which Eric answered this question was clear," said a Google spokesperson in an e-mailed statement. "He was talking about the US Patriot Act. The [CNBC] documentary later made clear the lengths to which Google goes to inform and empower users about privacy-related concerns, including creating a dashboard in which users can review and control data in their Google accounts."

Google has made, and continues to make privacy missteps, such as arguing last year that California law didn't require a privacy link on its home page and rolling out its Street View service around the world without enough outreach to communities and regulators.

In Italy, four Google executives face a possible jail sentence, if convicted, for failing to prevent a video depicting the bullying of a teen with Down Syndrome from being posted briefly on the Italian YouTube.

Google however is not the only company raked over the coals of privacy. Facebook this week, having apparently learned nothing from its Beacon fiasco, just asked its 350 million users to revisit their privacy settings while supporting settings that would share more rather than less information. And among other companies, there are even greater privacy problems.

If Google users care, they have not shown it in large numbers. The company continues to grow and thrive.

Google has repeatedly said that its business depends on user trust and has taken steps to enhance users' privacy, such as the Privacy Dashboard cited by Google's spokesperson.

Another such step was revealed earlier this week when Google VP of engineering Vic Gundotra said that this company had decided not to implement facial recognition for its Google Goggles service, which allows searchers to identify certain objects -- or apparently certain people -- by taking a picture of the object with a mobile phone. Gundotra said the company wants to understand the privacy implications more thoroughly.