Google Calls for Global Privacy Improvement

The international nature of business online makes privacy a global concern, says Google's privacy counsel.

Given Google’s past reputation for privacy concerns, it would seem like the least likely company to lecture the United Nations on the topic, but that’s exactly what a company representative will do on Friday in France. Peter Fleischer, Google’s global privacy counsel, will present to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) at a conference in Strasbourg, France, urging stricter controls on privacy.

Although many developed countries already have stringent privacy controls, Fleischer cited the international nature of the Internet as a cause for global concern. “Every time a person uses a credit card their information may cross six or seven national boundaries,” Fleischer told Reuters. He gave India as an example of a nation that has taken on vast quantities of data from other nations through outsourcing, but which has no privacy regulations of its own.

Fleischer told reporters that the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation’s privacy framework could be used as a model for what should be deployed worldwide. It places limits on how much data can be collected on how securely it must be kept, and has seen acceptance everywhere from Russia to Vietnam.

Later this month, Fleischer will meet with Canadian regulators, who have expressed concern over Google’s Street View mapping feature.