Google accused of smear campaign

A UK-based privacy organisation has demanded that Google apologises for what it called a 'smear campaign'.

Privacy International (PI) last week published a report that criticised the retention of personal information by several internet companies, including Google.

Though Apple, Facebook and AOL were named in the report, the harshest criticism was aimed at Google, which PI said was "hostile to privacy".

No official statement regarding the report has been released by Google, but PI claimed to have been told by two European journalists that the search giant had said that PI had a 'conflict of interests' concerning Microsoft.

PI then decided to send an open letter to Eric Schmidt, the chief executive of Google.

Simon Davies, director of PI, wrote in the letter: "Privacy International is a fiercely independent organisation that has never shown fear nor favour. Again for the record, we have been fierce and relentless critics of Microsoft since our inception as a watchdog.

"Can I be so bold as to suggest that your company's actions stem from sour grapes that you achieved the lowest ranking amongst the internet giants? We have no specific axe to grind with Google. It is one of many companies demonstrating a poor privacy performance, and in assessing that performance we are acting solely with the intention of raising public awareness," wrote Davies.

The concerns raised by PI in the original report centred on the retention of information about people using Google's services.

"Google account holders that regularly use even a few of Google's services must accept that the company retains a large quantity of information about that user, often for an unstated or indefinite length of time, without clear limitation on subsequent use or disclosure, and without an opportunity to delete or withdraw personal data even if the user wishes to terminate the service," the report said.

www.privacyinternational.org

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