Google Makes Privacy Page One

Bowing to pressure from privacy groups - and potentially California law - Google has put a link to its privacy policy right on its home page.

In a move to appease privacy groups—and possibly to conform with California law—Google has placed a link to its privacy policy right on its home page. The link replaces the word “Google” in what used to be small line dedicated to a copyright statement, so the total number of words on Google’s famously spartan home page has stayed the same.

Google had recently come under criticism from groups such as the Electronic Privacy Information Center, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and the ACLU, who argued finding Google’s privacy policy amid the maze of its online offerings and services was difficult, and more than a matter of a couple clicks from the home page. Some privacy advocates asserted that the absence of a link to the company’s privacy policy from its home page might violate California Online Privacy Protection Act of 2003.

Early last month, Google came out in favor of possible federal privacy laws that would offer a consistent set of privacy protections for the entire United States, rather than forcing Google and other Internet companies to deal with a patchwork of state and local regulations. Some privacy groups support such a federal move, although others oppose it, since a federal privacy law would override potentially more-restrictive privacy regulations set by states.