Genetibase - Software for your Scientific Success

A study from Privacy International has ranked Google at the bottom of a list of major internet destinations for privacy.The study found that while a number of other Internet companies have issues with data protection, none comes as close to Google in “achieving the status of being an endemic threat to privacy.”

Issue with Google included:

• Failure to provide an expungement option for retained data
• Failure to follow generally accepted privacy practices such as the OECD Privacy Guidelines and elements of EU data protection law
• unstated or indefinite length of time for data retention, without clear limitation on use or disclosure

And the most scary:

And Google’s ambitions may go well beyond the collection of personal information via the web. Their recent investment in 23andme, a service which will analyze people’s DNA, means that they may have access to people’s genetic makeup in the future. And that includes genetic flaws that might signal future health risks for them and their offspring. Google knowing what web searches we do today, or who we send emails to, is nothing compared with what may come in the future.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, June 10th, 2007 at 9:18 pm and is filed under Business, Miscellaneous. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.