Google and Government: A Threat to Your Privacy

News that Android and Apple phone communicate collect data on your personal information reveal much about the two companies and their views of the consumer.

Upon the release of the news, Steve Jobs took to the microphone denying Apple products track users calling such accusations “false.” Emails leaked to the Mercury News tell a different story about Google. “I cannot stress enough how important Google’s wifi location database is to our Android and mobile product strategy,” Google location service product manager Steve Lee wrote. “We absolutely do care about this (decision by Motorola) because we need wifi data collection in order to maintain and improve our wifi location service.”

This is not Google’s first dust-up regarding privacy violations. Back in 2003, Google-Watch chronicled major privacy concerns about the company including

1. Google’s immortal cookie: Google was the first search engine to use a cookie that expires in 2038. This was at a time when federal websites were prohibited from using persistent cookies altogether. Now it’s years later, and immortal cookies are commonplace among search engines; Google set the standard because no one bothered to challenge them. This cookie places a unique ID number on your hard disk. Anytime you land on a Google page, you get a Google cookie if you don’t already have one. If you have one, they read and record your unique ID number.

2. Google records everything they can: For all searches they record the cookie ID, your Internet IP address, the time and date, your search terms, and your browser configuration. Increasingly, Google is customizing results based on your IP number. This is referred to in the industry as “IP delivery based on geo-location.”

3. Google retains all data indefinitely: Google has no data retention policies. There is evidence that they are able to easily access all the user information they collect and save.

4. Google won’t say why they need this data: Inquiries to Google about their privacy policies are ignored. When the New York Times asked Sergey Brin about whether Google ever gets subpoenaed for this information, he had no comment.

There is now an added element of concern about Google’s data collection activities. Google’s growing relationship with government. Google has received fast-tracked contracts from government agencies like the National Security Agency and the Department of Defense, were consumer information like Google searches shared with the spy agency? Does Google’s retention policy make it a depository for federal agencies that is just a subpoena away? Does Google view this as a potential growth area for their bottom line?

When a company stores information you don’t want stored, you can always choose a different company to do business with. But you don’t have that option when it comes to the government. Google’s growing embrace of government power and contracts raise more troubling concerns than whether Google is tracking your every move.