Google Would Support Federal Privacy Laws

Representatives for Internet giant Google have reportedly told a senior Republican lawmaker Joe Barton (Texas) concerned with online privacy that the company would support a federal privacy law that created a consistent set of privacy protections for U.S. consumers. Google’s willingness to participate in a nationwide privacy framework comes as the company is being accused of violating California privacy laws because the company does not link to its privacy policy from its famously uncluttered home page.

“Google supports the adoption of a comprehensive federal privacy law that would [...] create consistent levels of privacy from one jurisdiction to another, and putting penalties in place to punish and dissuade bad actors,” Google’s chief lobbyist Alan Davidson wrote in a statement obtained by Reuters.

Google has recently come under criticism from the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, along with other groups, for not providing a link to its privacy policies on the home page of its site. The groups claim Google’s failure to do so violates California law. Google’s privacy practices—generally considered to be comprehensive and long governed by the company’s famous “do no evil” motto—has been the subject of increased scrutiny in recent years, particularly since the company’s acquisition of online advertising network DoubleClick.

Google maintains that offering its privacy policy under its “About Google” link on the home page constitutes “conspicuous” posting on its Web site.

Some privacy rights advocates argue against the creation of a national set of online privacy laws, since a federal statute would trump potentially more-restrictive legislation enacted by states. New York and California have already passed fairly rigorous online privacy laws.