June 18, 2007

Google Deputy General Counsel Defends Privacy Practices

Nicole Wong is the point person for growing criticism of Google's privacy practices. When Wong, Google's deputy general counsel in charge of compliance, drafted her ideal job description for Google three and half years ago, calming fears about the search engine's data-collection policies was probably not the assignment she envisioned. Now it is. More than two dozen European privacy regulators have launched an inquiry into Google's data protection practices. In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission is probing Google's pending $3.1 billion acquisition of DoubleClick, an online advertising company. Last week, Privacy International, a London group, ranked Google's practices the worst among 23 top Internet services, including Microsoft, Yahoo and AOL.

Google deputy general counsel addresses privacy fears, San Jose Mercury News, June 17, 2007.