Google's Privacy Policy Link: Too Little, Too Late?

makes you think...

Now that it's facing a genuine privacy crisis, Google has decided to quell a completely insignificant privacy dust-up. The search giant has finally placed a link to its privacy policy on the home page. Previously, users had to click on multiple links, or search on the terms "Google privacy policy," to reach the information.
This purely cosmetic change might placate some watchdogs, who argued that Google was violating California law by not including the link on its home page, but does nothing to solve the larger problem: Google stores too much information about its users.

Among other data, the company retains logs showing users' IP addresses and their search queries. Google contends that IP addresses don't usually reveal people's identities. But that assertion ignores the reality that examining all of a person's searches can in itself reveal identity. In other words, users' identities can be deduced whether the IP address is real or a made-up sequence of numbers -- as long as it's paired with all of the searches originating from a single computer.

Last week, a federal judge ordered Google to disclose to Viacom complete user logs for YouTube, including all users' IP addresses, screen names and which videos they watched. Google and Viacom have since tried to quell privacy concerns, with Google saying it will ask to "anonymize" IP addresses, even though that won't necessarily preserve users' privacy as long as all of their information is still paired with the same identifier. Viacom has also said it will handle all information confidentially.

As privacy advocates point out, Google wouldn't be facing this problem now if it hadn't compiled and stored these records in the first place.

Louis Stanton, the federal judge who issued the order in the YouTube lawsuit, wrote in his opinion that Google argues in its public policy blog that IP addresses aren't necessarily personally identifiable. "We have proposed broad global privacy standards, and are strong supporters of the idea that data protection laws should apply to any data that could identify you. The reality is though that in most cases, an IP address without additional information cannot," the blog states.

But, on other sections of its site, Google equates IP addresses with personally identifiable information. "Due to user privacy concerns, Google Analytics doesn't report on personally identifiable information, including a visitor's IP address," the company states on a site about Google's analytics tool.

In other words, even Google realizes that, for all practical purposes, IP addresses should be treated as personally identifiable information. Given the events of last week, the company should rethink the wisdom of retaining such data.

Kelsey Group: Interactive Ad Revenues To Reach $147 Billion Globally By 2012

INTERACTIVE ADVERTISING REVENUES WILL INCREASE significantly from $45 billion in 2007 to $147 billion globally in 2012--representing a 23.4% compound annual growth rate, according to The Kelsey Group.

Interactive advertising--including search, display advertising, classifieds and other interactive ad products--grew its share of global advertising revenues from 6.1% in 2006 to 7.4% in 2007, per "The Kelsey Group's Annual Forecast (2007-2012): Outlook for Directional and Interactive Advertising." By 2012, Kelsey Group analysts expect the interactive share of global ad spending will reach 21%.

The forecast does not include mobile ad platforms. The Kelsey Group's mobile forecast, released in September 2007, will be updated later in 2008.

The global advertising market grew to just over $600 billion in 2007. The firm expects global ad revenues to grow at a CAGR of 2.7% and reach $707 billion in 2012, propelled in large part by considerable growth in the interactive segment.

"It's no surprise that the global advertising industry is experiencing a full-scale shift to mixed-media platforms, with interactive driving a significant share of overall industry growth," said Matt Booth, senior vice president, Interactive Local Media at the Princeton, N.J.-based Kelsey Group, in a statement. "We see Internet development--including increased subscriber/user access and broadband penetration--as a driver of both interactive advertising revenue as well as migration of traditional ad spending to new media platforms."

During the forecast period (2007-2012), the U.S. will see interactive advertising revenues grow from $22.5 billion to $62.4 billion (22.6% CAGR), with interactive revenues in Canada increasing from $1.3 billion to $3.3 billion (21.3% CAGR).

Global directional advertising revenues--including local search, print and Internet Yellow Pages--will grow from $33.3 billion in 2007 to $41.4 billion in 2012. Local search revenues will grow from $2.1 billion to $6.6 billion (25.5 percent CAGR).