25 September 2007
A senior official with web searcher Google expressed on Monday that National regulators need to agree on a basic set of global privacy protections for the Internet within the next five years.
Peter Fleischer, the firm's global privacy counsel, said 75 percent of countries had no Internet privacy standards at a time when the amount of sensitive personal and financial data on the Web was soaring.
Although, Google itself criticized for the threat it poses to personal privacy, says the firm's business agenda, the world economy and the Internet could suffer unless action is taken to ensure basic privacy on the Web.
Google are unhappy with what they have described as a patchwork of conflicting privacy rules in numerous countries and a complete lack in others. In light of this Google are pressing for action regarding the enormous access to personal information on the Web.
Google wants countries to adopt privacy principles agreed by several Asia-Pacific countries. Fleischer said some backed this idea while others wanted to focus on what the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development is doing.
Peter Fleischer comments:
Google have expressed that perfect harmonization is unlikely, but the basic model could combine laws, codes of conduct and best practices. Even if nations did not agree on standards within five years, Google would consider it progress if some countries without Internet privacy rules took action, if we can ... improve the standards in three quarters of the countries in the world, regardless of which model they follow, that is a huge step forward.
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