Google’s endorsement - Federal privacy law

2008-06-11 11:59:28 (GMT) (WiredPRNews.com - Business, Law)

Chicago, Illinois (WiredPRNews.com) — Google Inc., a prominent Internet search and advertising company, has given a senior Republican lawmaker the thumbs-up that they would endorse and support a U.S. privacy law, according to a new report by Reuters.

Issues regarding the amount of user’s personal information collected by Google, Yahoo and others have been called into question of privacy advocates and Google has been fervently urged to place a link to its privacy policy on the home page.

In May, Texas Rep. Joe Barton, the senior Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, asked Google for information surrounding their acquisition of DoubleClick, the Internet giant’s competitor.

In a June 6th response signed by Alan Davidson, Google’s chief lobbyist, the company pledged to support a federal privacy policy. The letter stated, “Google supports the adoption of a comprehensive federal privacy law that would accomplish several goals such as building consumer trust and protections; creating a uniform framework for privacy, which would create consistent levels of privacy from one jurisdiction to another; and putting penalties in place to punish and dissuade bad actors.”

Some experts are unconvinced by Google’s stand citing that a federal privacy law put into act would create the need for a change in state laws. This hesitation is due to the lack of desire to allow the state to get involved.

“Google’s Chief Executive Eric Schmidt and Barton met last November, and two of Barton’s aides went to Google headquarters in Mountain View, California in December to discuss privacy.”

By: Rene Perras, Cepac. Lawyer Marketing Company - Connecting Lawyers on the Web