Google UK must improve privacy

INTERNET SEARCH FIRM Google has made reasonable improvements to its privacy policies, according to an audit by the UK data watchdog the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), but must do more.

In a report released today the ICO said that Google had taken reasonable steps to improve its privacy policies and has moved away from the sort of trampling it did when it had its Street View cars patrolling the UK snaffling up personal information.

"I'm satisfied that Google has made good progress in improving its privacy procedures following the undertaking they signed with me last year. All of the commitments they gave us have been progressed and the company have also accepted the findings of our audit report where we've asked them to go even further," said Information Commissioner Christopher Graham as he reported the end of the audit and recommended that Google carry on its good work.

"The ICO's Google audit (PDF) is not a rubber stamp for the company's data protection policies. The company needs to ensure its work in this area continues to evolve alongside new products and technologies. Google will not be filed and forgotten by the ICO."

Things have not always been so rosy though, and it was not that long ago that both the ICO and Google were criticised over the handling of personal information gathered during the creation of its road side travel application.

While Google was slammed for picking up personal information without explanation or reason, the ICO also came under fire for not doing much about it, and not even sending any technical experts to audit the firm after the incident.

Now that this full audit has been completed it must be pats on the back all round. The ICO said that Google had taken action in a range of agreed improvement areas, and had promised to go further towards privacy protection.

This includes the creation of a document that should ensure that Google builds privacy into software and applications at the earliest stages of development, and that privacy becomes more of a part of the Google way in general.

This last point should mean that all Google engineers are schooled in data protection. This is perhaps somewhat overdue because of the nature of Google's business, but we applaud it anyway.

There are some improvements to be made, and the ICO said that by sticking to the above these should be achievable. It also recommended that Google share its plans for managing data through what was called a "privacy story" and suggested that users should be able to refer to this to make sure that the firm was doing what it promised it was doing. µ