Google Says Complete Privacy Does Not Exist

Google Says Complete Privacy Does Not Exist.

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday July 31, @07:57AM
from the open-books dept.

schliz writes "In a submission to court, Google is arguing that in the modern world there can be no expectation of privacy. Google is being sued by a Pennsylvania couple after their home appeared on Google's Street View pages. The couple's house is on a private road clearly marked as private property." Here is our previous story about Google Street View privacy issues.

I believe this to be the difference between a socialist view and a free republic when ordinary citizens have rights to privacy and keep others from their Personally Identifiable Information(PII) data. Might does not make right. 

Every time someone uses Google search,  they are enabling this kind of behavior in Google and their employees. Microsoft has been around since 1975 and we've certainly made some mistakes in the past, but we've always been staunch supporters of customer privacy. Our efforts with the Microsoft Security Development Lifecycle(SDL) and our mandatory internal training on customer Privacy policies are aimed at safeguarding any data that comes to Microsoft through transactional means. While I was on the MSDN Webcasts team, we couldn't pull any customer data directly, and we couldn't store in on our laptops or our side the MS firewall. Doing so means severe disciplinary actions up to and including termination. While this impedes our ability to get to market quicker and conduct on the fly analytics, it's the right thing to do for our customers. You don't need PII data to determine what your customers want or to get metrics in terms of how many attending and where they are coming from. The PII data can be hid to protect our customers right to privacy.

Google has had issues with Google maps where they would show images of military bases from above, people’s backyard just because the technology is there. Just because you can the ability to do something doesn’t give you the right to do it. Microsoft is a more mature company, and we’ve come a long way from that way of thinking. I’m glad we have policies and procedures to safeguard our customers data. Google's statements about privacy doesn't exist in the modern world is a decision that's not theirs to make. They're looking for a easy way out, and customers will pay the ultimate price. Think about that the next time you do a Google search.

Try Microsoft Live Search next time.