EU restrictions for the data loggers Google & Co.
The report is titled “Opinion on data protection issues related to search engines” and encompasses 29 pages, including the cover sheet and table of contents. It was put together by the Article 29 Data Protection Working Party. The group is made up of European data security officers, which have worked on this report during the last months. They closely examined search engines and their relationship to data protection. Search engine & data protection sounds somewhat like a contradiction, if I think of my own research… Google and DoubleClick, Microsoft and Yahoo – a lot of things are going on in the search engine business. Not only with respect to acquisitions.
Should the claims, which the Article 29 group has worked on, become reality and EU-restrictions, this would have a huge impact on Google & Co. In any case, the measures to be taken, which have been suggested by the Article 29 group, confirm the deplorable circumstances that have been revealed by the “Google Trap”.
Shady data collections
One of the most severe grievances is the uncontrolled passion of collecting data. Google & Co. collect too much personalized data and offer no explanation whatsoever why they need this information to begin with. Furthermore, the collected information is saved much too long – some operators even save the data indefinitely. A period of six months would be absolutely sufficient, anything exceeding this amount of time is simply not justifiable.
Excessive storage period
Google even stores data for a period of 18 months. The data protectors are now demanding that the search engines must demonstrate and explain why such a long period of storage is necessary. In a first statement, Peter Fleischer, Google’s head “data protector” insisted on the 18 months – this would be the only way to maintain a high search quality.
Cookies stored too long
The Article 29 group also criticizes cookies, which are installed on our computers. Cookies are protocol files, which are loaded onto the computer while you surf the web, “present” us with a distinctive identity number, make a protocol of our surf habits and finally offer this data to the web-operator. Some cookies are valid for decades. That means if you do not delete them, you are identifiable for decades (at least theoretically, since the computer will probably have been replaced during that time.)
User profiles
The information, which has been collected by these cookies, allow an exact compilation of user profiles. Especially if they have been enriched with information from other sources – something, which is often the case and has been explained in the “Google Trap”. Just think of the numerous patents Google already owns in the categories user-tracking, user-analyzing, etc.
Right to have a data entry corrected
Information on registered users is even more detailed. According to the Article 29 group they should be allowed access to their data collection, in order to delete, correct or update the information.
Google & Co. will be facing difficult times: in the coming weeks, the unsubstantiated and uncontrolled collection of data will stay a much discussed topic - for sure.
