Privacy International has released a study concerning privacy issues when talking about some of the biggest Internet companies, and it seems Google ranked last. You can find more on the report here and even more details here. But the main idea is that Privacy International has performed the study over a six months period following the privacy practices of some of the Internet's biggest players.
Here's the complete list of the rated companies:
* Amazon
* AOL
* Apple
* BBC
* Bebo
* eBay
* Facebook
* Friendster
* Google
* Hi5
* Last.fm
* LinkedIn
* LiveJournal
* Microsoft
* Myspace
* Orkut
* Skype
* Wikipedia
* Windows Live Space
* Xanga
* Yahoo!
* YouTube
As you can see it's a long list and, as the report states each had its pros and cons, but the interesting fact is that Google ranked last. Why is that, one might ask. Well mainly because Google keeps personal information for an indefinite period of time, it keeps IP address listings of over two years before deletion and other privacy details like this. Does that mean that Google uses your private data for malicious purposes ? Well probably not, but conspiracy adepts have other views on the matter. See more details on Google's privacy center page.
The worst part is that Google didn't respond to this as it should, there was no official response until now. And even worse, it's not only about this, other public issues concerning Google, such as the scandal concerning Street View images, remain unanswered.
For now I think the truth is somewhere in between, Google should modify some of its privacy policies, but I don't think the information gathered is used in a dangerous manner.
