Boston (dbTechno) - The search engine giant Google has made a change to their homepage at google.com, by adding a privacy link.

The new privacy link on the homepage of google leads to the Google Privacy Center.

The link comes at the bottom of the page where the Google copyright logo used to be.

Many privacy organizations have been putting a great deal of pressure on Google to make the change, and add the link to the home page.

Read more: dbtechno.com 

Labels: homepage, link, privacy

Announcing the Latest Google Compliance Requirement. Webmasters hosting Google AdSense on their sites are now being forced meet Google's new privacy policy requirements or face the consequences once again as Google continues to grind out yet another of their stress inducing compliance tactics.


(PRWEB) May 22, 2008 -- To solve the problem, generate a free Google compliant Privacy Policy right now, easily tailored to work on any website. (Takes less than 15 minutes)

Announcing the Latest Google Compliance Requirement

Many webmasters hosting Google AdSense on their sites are forced to comply or face consequences once again as Google continues to grind out yet another of their stress inducing compliance tactics.

Warning: Do as Google Says, or Face De-activation of AdSense Revenue.

The most recent crackdown from Google is the requirement for a privacy policy on every site hosting Google AdSense.

Google has gained a reputation for forcing webmasters to scramble every time they implement another one of their "Quality Compliance Rules". This latest rule is aimed at AdSense publishers not hosting a proper Privacy Policy.

This particular rule isn't quite as stressful as some previous Google Slaps have been, but it still has the power to get an AdSense account shut off by not meeting Google's requirements.

An Easy 15 Minute Solution

There are a number of solutions to writing a Privacy Policy which range from free (for example: bonus from a software vendor like Trust Guard) to hundreds of dollars if an attorney is involved. In this case, requirements are easily met for most sites.

Full story: prweb.com 

Labels: Adsense, policy, privacy, Publishers

Washington (dbTechno) - Facebook announced that they have denied Google Friend Connect access to Facebook user data.

The Google Friend Connect service would allow any Web site to have social networking features. This would allow users to go on a different Web site, and access their photos, profile, blogs, etc and update them accordingly.

Facebook is apparently not up for this idea at all though as they do not want Facebook users to interact with Google Friend Connect it seems.

Full story: dbtechno.com 

Labels: Facebook, Friend Connect, privacy

Search engine giant Google has defended itself after a report from the European Union (EU) questioned the company’s policy of keeping users’ search records for more than six months.

A report published earlier this week by the Article 29 Working Party committee questioned if Google was justified in keeping user identification data such as IP addresses for more than six months, and called for greater clarity from search engines in general regarding data collection practices.

“Search engines, in their role as collectors of user data, have so far insufficiently explained the nature and purpose of their operations to the users of their services," the report published earlier this week reads. “[We do] not see a basis for a retention period beyond six months.”

Full article: information-age.com 

Labels: Europe, policy, privacy

Google has said that its cookies, tiny files stored on a computer when a user visits a website, will auto delete after two years.

They will be deleted unless the user returns to a Google site within the two-year period, prompting a re-setting of the file's lifespan.

The company's cookies are used to store preference data for sites, such as default language and to track searches.

All search engines and most websites store cookies on a computer.

Currently, Google's are set to delete after 2038.

Read more: BBC News 

Labels: cookies, data, privacy, sites

European group asks for an investigation into how Google's DoubleClick acquisition could affect privacy rights.

A European consumer group has complained that Google Inc.'s proposed acquisition of online ad broker DoubleClick Inc. could hurt privacy rights due to the massive amount of data the companies would hold.

In a letter, the Bureau Europien des Unions de Consommateurs (BEUC) has asked the European Commission and other authorities to investigate how the deal would affect consumers.

Full article: pcworld.com 

Labels: DoubleClick, Europe, privacy

Google has agreed to change its policy on retaining server logs after inquiries from Europe's Article 29 Working Group. That group, which represents data privacy officers from many European countries, asked Google for more information about its privacy policies, and Norway wasn't keen on Google's plans, either. Google has responded by dropping the amount of time it hangs onto personalized logs to 18 months.

Read more: arstechnica.com 

Labels: Europe, files, privacy

BERLIN: In the latest example of a U.S. technology giant potentially being called on the carpet in Europe, Google has been warned that it may be violating European Union privacy laws by storing data on its users for up to two years.

An advisory panel of data protection chiefs from the 27 EU countries sent a letter last week to the Internet search engine company asking Google to justify its policy of retaining data on Internet addresses and individual search habits, said Friso Roscam Abbing, a spokesman for European Union's justice commissioner, Franco Frattini.

Privacy experts said the letter was the first salvo in what could become a determined effort by the European Commission to force Google to change how it does business in the EU, whose 400 million consumers outnumber the U.S. population.

Any EU effort to impose limits on Google, which as a U.S.-based company operates under U.S. law, would be the latest in a series of aggressive actions taken by European policy makers to rein in global technology companies.

Frattini called the working group's query to Google "pertinent, appropriate and legitimate."

Full article: iht.com 

Labels: data, Europe, laws, privacy