Wow, imagine that...privacy issues once again being raised in regard to Google. Shocker. The latest is in reference to issues with the Chrome browser and is addressed in the company’s blog.
The latest word of the day is “anonymize”. That’s apparently what Google plans to do to get rid of user tracks. The Google blog referenced both their Suggest application as well as their sparkly new (cough cough) browser Chrome. Suggest is featured in Google Search, Toolbar, the iPhone...and obviously Chrome. It works like predictive texting. You start to type in a word...it suggests what you might mean to say. Like....you start to type in “stre”, and it might suggest “street view” or “utter lack of privacy” or “you only need to sign off 3,793 papers to get your face off our program”, or “made by the ultimate rulers of all”. I’m just suggesting anyway.
They’ve at least cut the time it’s gonna take to “anonymize” the IP addresses on their server logs of anyone using the search bar from 18 months down to 9 months, although there is lots of uncertainty yet since the method for this is undecided. Some experts feel that in order for Google to actually truly keep data private, they would have to not just “anonymize” IP addresses, but remove them completely; along with any associated cookies and other identifying info found in the log. Highly doubtful that Google is going to go this route. Germany’s data protection commissioner, Peter Schaar, said yesterday that his office has “instigated an inquiry into whether Google’s Chrome was correlating and collecting personal data in violation of the country’s data protection law”. He also stated that a warning was issued on Saturday against use of the browser by the German Federal Office for Information Security. Google says they know of no such inquiry or warning. Maybe they should try running a search in their Suggest Box for “big fat Lia.. “ *ahem*
Via [techradar]
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