Google cautions against anti-privacy measures

Search giant Google has sounded off on a few proposed legislations concerning the Internet that could impede users' rights and invade their privacy. In its recent 'Big Tent' conference on Internet privacy, Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt said that the surprising accuracy of facial recognition devices is "very concerning" even for companies such as Google who are known for introducing highly advanced technologies today. According to the UK Daily Telegraph, Schmidt said that Google is unlikely to develop such a technology, but warned against governments who would want to prevent such services that may lead to stifling innovation. “Well-meaning people in government write something which is pretty broad and you have to be careful when you do this kind of regulation," he said. One such regulation is the PROTECT IP Act, a bill proposed in the United States that aims to curb the proliferation of content piracy delivered through the Internet. While the bill is designed with good intentions, many have sounded off against the catch-all and vague provisions included that may adversely impact many Internet companies, including Google. "I would be very, very careful if I were a government about arbitrarily [implementing] simple solutions to complex problems," Schmidt said. "It doesn't seem right. I would be very, very careful about that stuff. If [the UK government] do it the wrong way it could have disastrous precedent setting in other areas," he added. Ironically, Google has been embroiled in several privacy disputes concerning users' personal information in recent years, most notable of which is the fiasco surrounding its social networking product, Google Buzz, which allowed connections to see people the user contacts the most. The privacy flaw has since been fixed, and Buzz has been put on the sidelines since then. More recently, social networking giant Facebook was caught red-handed trying to implement a smear campaign against Google, which was allegedly scraping user data through its upcoming product called Social Circle. Facebook, through PR representative Burson-Marsteller, said that Social Circle "was designed to scrape private data and build deeply personal dossiers on millions of users—in a direct and flagrant violation of [Google's] agreement with the FTC." Google has declined to comment on the issue, saying they want to "focus on delighting people with great products." — TJD, GMA News