Washington Policy Brief > Google+ Causing Privacy Concerns

Google+ Causing Privacy Concerns

February 01, 2012

Google is launching a “Good to know” campaign in two dozen U.S. newspapers and magazines to encourage people to protect themselves and their information on the web, following criticism from privacy watchdogs. According to an article in the Los Angeles Times, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) widened its antitrust probe of the search engine to include Google+, examining whether the company is giving preferential treatment to its own service in violation of antitrust laws.

The Los Angeles Times reported that the campaign is meant to ease privacy concerns and offer practical advice and tips, including how to manage data shared with Google and websites. The main privacy concern comes from the new Google search feature called Search plus Your World, in which photos, updates, and other private information from its Google+ social network are seen in search results.

According to the article, the FTC added Google to its antitrust probe after the Electronic Privacy Information Center filed a complaint about the search changes on privacy and antitrust grounds. Twitter filed a complaint as well and claimed that the new feature will harm competitors.

The article noted that Google’s new feature is trying to direct competition from Facebook Inc., which has an alliance with Microsoft Corp.'s Bing search engine. However, Google’s director of privacy, Alma Whitten, stated that, “Given who we are, we have a strong incentive to make the Internet a place that people feel safe to do interesting things.”
Following scrutiny from around the world, Google, hopes the campaign will reveal the search engine in a positive light. "Google is thinking, 'We had better do a better job explaining this or we will have Congress stepping in to regulate us in a way that might be harmful to our business,'" Danny Sullivan, editor of the website SearchEngineLand, said.

According to the article, Google has conformed with the FTC before. Last year it settled claims from the introduction of its Buzz social networking service, in which it agreed to an independent audit of privacy procedures every other year for 20 years. The settlement covers future situations such as Google’s collection of Wi-Fi data. Since the settlement, Google has shut down Google Buzz.

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