Google: Our data retention is not data protection watchdogs' business

More Excuses and Misdirection from Google

So the Google public excuse for retaining search data for 18 months before stripping IP addresses of EU regulation has been false all along then. "the decision to keep them for 18 months and then to anonymise them, it would be the same decision even if data retention were repealed tomorrow".

Of course Google's real interest here is acquiring more information about you than all the other corporates and your government's total surveillance programs put together. Do not underestimate the power of statistically analysing multiple, independently benign databases, a very accurate picture of your life develops very quickly. This data collection allows Google to make a lot more money selling your data and using it to target adverts at you.

Whatever happened to the company that promised to 'do no evil' ?

Google now bigger the EU

So Google have declared that they do not consider themselves subject to EU law.

"Fleischer said his company would pursue its own policy irrespective of what EU law demanded on retention."

How long before the EU decide to outlaw Google inside the EU?

just run that one by me again?

Is this quote accurate??

<Peter Fleischer said that its retention of user search data was "just not their field">, where 'their' refers to Euro data retention officials.

Fummery

Hogwash

Flimsy semantic wriggling of someone who KNOWS they are in the wrong

Data retention is so very much part of securiy - Google users' security

Sounds nice

I would be much more confident in Google's ability to properly manage data without government supervision if Google hadn't kowtowed to the Chinese government and helped put somebody in jail.

It seems that if China asks something, then it's Yessir! RightawaySir!, but if it's a regular (what's left of) democratic government, then it's more like Shove off it and Get Out Of My Way.

Could it be because Google already owns the market here ? I wonder.

I avoid....

Anything with the Google name, they are just too nosey for my money. I cant see why people are so stuck on G-mail, on the infrequent occasions I change ISP, It also acts as a spring clean of contacts (and spammers in the case of one account that Is "prone" to spammers by its useage) and its easy enough to send out a mail to those who *need* to know that I am changing address.

We should not surrender our privacy, not to government, not to companies, none of them can be trusted to "do no evil" with the information they leech off of us.

Isnt it strange though? so many American companies seem to like to act as if U.S. law applied around the world and yet seem unwilling to obey laws in other territories where they operate... unless it suits them - say for example where it is likely a government may order access to their service blocked for failure to provide data that they have harvested through that service

No Thanks.. I will stick with Webferret, it finds everything I need.

once upon a time

Google has lived out the good times its going down the evil route of MS and government..

Tracking what we all do

Easy solution :

1. clear all cookies and cache every closure or exit of gmail and use TOR to browse net

2. Stop using Gmail and google.

3. Use webcrawler metacrawler astavista the old search engines its time to revert lol

4. Let google loose its user so it can snoop the air that flies past their network

All snoopers are loosers and these so called amature terrorists gives the government and these organisations more reason power to snoop

So if you ask me yes the war is being won by the terrorist cos we have a little bit of freedom left and this is slowly erroding day by day

It might be soon to go and live in some caves afghanstan have no mobiles or electronic devices for them to snoop

Hey we might meet up with laden and all those billions of dollars he has in the caves and have lamb burgers for the rest of our lives lol

Why do you actually care?

So what google know what I search for.......my life is being monitored and I'm being followed OMG!!

Randomise your queries

If you use Firefox you can download TrackMeNot.

This will fire off a random search to Google once a minute, that should make it interesting to work out what I am interested in!

Google is now much much too "big for its boots"

I quote the statement "The retention of search engine query data is a security matter and not one for Europe's data protection officials, according to Google's global privacy chief.". From this statement it seems that Google have become much too large and clearly could not give a damn about people who use its services, other than to take as much money as possible from them. They ride roughshod over you as if you do not exist. I had an adsense account and with NO

EXPLANATION at all ,even though I asked, they simply said that I had had illegitmate traffic and that my account was suspended and all my earned money taken back. THAT is pure arrogance and it is about time that the European Commission did the same thing as they are doing with Microsoft, bringing them to heel !!. Perhaps Google should become a bit more humble again.

RE: NRT

Nice, I like that. I think I will poke at google :)

It doesn't affect their "searches", the data is safe and it makes you more "random".

Thanks for the idea/link.

Amusing paradigm

I remember a few years ago, they promissed "Do no evil".

Atleast with Microsoft, they still have supporters. Google seems to be pushing everyone away.

I admit, I still use gmail...but searches? I'm not sure anymore. I get more cialis results when I search online... :(

Google's position is not alone misleading, but deliberately so

DG Justice, Liberty and Security of the European Commission wrote the Data Retention Directive and is responsible for implementation of the Data Protection Directive. It is therefore simply ridiculous to try to teach that part of the Commission what the Data Retention means! It is inconceivable that Google does not know this.

... can't... resist...

Does this mean that Google is being datal retentive?

I'll go fetch me coat now, yerlordship.