Google: Privacy matters, but it does not exist

As this MarketWatch article makes abundantly clear, Google needs to get behind one privacy message and fast. Either privacy is important or it's a figment of our imaginations, but it can't be both.

The controversy stems from Google's issuing contradictory statements on privacy, one to Calif. State Assemblyman Joel Anderson (R-San Diego), and one issued in response to an invasion of privacy lawsuit in Pennsylvania. To Anderson, who says he's concerned about Google's privacy policies, the company assured him that "Google takes privacy seriously." But in the Pennsylvania court documents, republished on the Smoking Gun site, Google states that "Privacy does not exist."

The Pa. lawsuit, brought by Aaron and Christine Boring, was prompted by a Google vehicle--outfitted with a 360-degree panoramic camera on its roof--driving briefly up the couple's driveway to snap a picture of their residence for Google StreetView. Google admits the photos were taken during a "brief entry on their driveway," but minimizes the trespass, saying that in today's modern world, such intrusions on privacy are commonplace.

Let's hope not, especially in light of a response from the National Legal and Policy Center. The group issued a document demonstrating just how invasive Google's technology can get. By using StreetView and Google Earth, the group was able to compile surprisingly detailed information on an unnamed top Google executive, including the license plates of the cars parked outside his home and the security company used by his next-door neighbor.

Google seemed to be moving in the right direction on privacy, since just recently, it added a link to its privacy policy on its search engine homepage, a move that was long overdue. But now it says privacy just doesn't exist. And that leads everyone to wonder, what's Google real attitude toward privacy? Was the response to the lawsuit off-message or on?

• Google
• Google Earth
• lawsuit
• policy
• privacy
• StreetView