Online privacy: Google takes stock of the situation

Google’s press office offers a series of “typical statements” circulating online, providing company responses and explanations. As if it were a Q&A, but making a clear distinction between what is considered a “myth” and what Google defines as “reality.”
It discusses the management of personal data, collection of cookie IDs, data circulation, and potential communications of internet users’ data to governments.
Here is what Marco Pancini, European Senior Policy Counsel, wrote about the matter:
“The topic of online privacy is increasingly debated today. For us, as an engineering company, privacy and technology go hand in hand. We would like to take this opportunity to clarify the subject and distinguish between myth and reality.
Myth: Google knows who I am and knows everything about me
Reality: Google’s goal is to create valuable services, not to identify its users. The information we collect has only this purpose. For example, when you perform a search without logging into a Google account, the information we keep in our log files (such as IP address, your computer’s browser and operating system, the search performed, date and time of the search, cookie ID) do not allow you to be personally identified but serve to understand if the provided results were useful.
To further protect privacy, we delete some IP addresses after 9 months and anonymize cookies after 18 months. Only those with a Google account are associated with a name,
but it is the name the user has chosen to assign.
Each registered user of Google’s services can access all information linked to their account through Google Dashboard (google.com/dashboard), a technological solution which is also concrete proof of our transparency towards all our users.

Myth: Google profiles us for advertising purposes
Reality: Google’s business model is based on advertising, which allows us to offer many of our services for free. Even in this case, we have a clear goal: to provide access to increasingly relevant and useful information and be rewarded with a click. Since 2009, we have also introduced a new service: interest-based advertising. This service does not profile users but shows ads based on browsing interests expressed via browsers (which do not personally identify any individual, also because the same browser may be used by multiple people and the same person may use multiple browsers).
Interest-based advertising cannot create profiles because it is not associated with a name nor with searches performed by users on our engine.
It does not allow showing ads associated with sensitive categories, such as political, religious, sexual preferences, or health-related information. The categories are determined only by browsing certain sites that display our ads through the AdSense program.
Before launching this service, we wanted to design technological solutions that guarantee transparency and freedom of choice for our users.
The answer today is provided by the control panel that allows managing ad preferences associated with your browser (google.com/ads/preferences), adding or removing categories, and if desired, performing a definitive opt-out from the service. This panel is also accessible via the link to our Privacy Center on the search engine’s homepage.

Myth: It’s difficult to regain ownership of information given to Google
Reality: Competitive value for companies like ours is based on users’ trust, which for Google does not mean chaining them to our services but letting them control their own data.
Initiatives like Data Liberation Front (www.dataliberation.org) support users’ right to control information stored across different Google products and services. This allows, for example, closing a Gmail account and transferring contacts to another email provider. We believe competition encourages innovation and want users to choose our services because they meet their needs.

Myth: Google sells user data to companies and shares it with governments
Reality: We will never give any company personal information that can identify our users without their explicit consent. On our search engine’s homepage there is a privacy link through which you can access all information about personal data protection and read that Google collaborates with authorities in fighting cybercrime by responding to information requests made in accordance with the law.
Again, this was a choice of transparency that materialized in a website (google.com/governmentrequest) through which it is possible to get information about requests made to Google by governments worldwide.

We are aware of the importance that privacy holds today in the online world, and that is why we maintain an open dialogue with all of you and with the authorities responsible for protecting this right. We believe that dialogue and technology are the answers to protect online privacy and allow full control over personal information when using our services.”