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This week Google addressed the concerns about issues raised by information commissioners in ten different countries over privacy and Buzz, while data protection in federal agencies is also a concern.
Google Address Privacy Issues
Google has admitted that it didn’t get everything right with Buzz, but said it will do better in the future. The ‘everything’ in question relates to a letter sent by 10 global information commissioners to Google on April 19 expressing concerns over the protection of user data.
In particular, the letter, which was addressed to Google CEO Eric Schmidt, expressed concern that “…the privacy rights of the world’s citizens are being forgotten as Google rolls out new technological applications…“
It added: “We were disturbed by your recent rollout of the Google Buzz social networking application, which betrayed a disappointing disregard for fundamental privacy norms and laws…” Google Street View also came in for criticism for “…launch[ing] in some countries without due consideration of privacy and data protection laws and cultural norms.”
Just last week, Google responded to the letter and, while admitting that it did not get everything 100% right, said that they had "acted to address a number of issues… following the feedback we received.” The response, signed by Jane Horvath and Peter Fleischer, global privacy counsels at Google, said that they had reacted as soon as users’ concerns became obvious adding that protecting privacy was a core element of Google’s practices.
"Google is committed to ensuring that privacy is designed into our products at every stage of the development cycle…. “, the letter said and cited their privacy website and blogs as an example of who the company is ensuring transparency.
Whether this will be enough to reassure the information commissioners from countries like France, the UK and Spain remains to be seen, but a response to the response should be interesting.
File Exchange and Federal Data
Data protection is also at the core of a recent survey on file security and federal encryption. Entitled Why Encrypt Federal File Transfer Report, it says that while the government spends US$ 7.9 billion on cybersecurity measures, many agencies fail to implement even the most basic file security protocols.
The survey of 200 federal IT and information security professionals by MeriTalk, a government IT provider and Axway, a business network company found that agencies whose managers understand cyber threats are twice as likely (53%) to follow correct policies. However, only 58% were aware of agency file transfer policies.
At the core of the findings is that data security issues in federal agencies are mainly due to employees’ use of unsecure methods to exchange information, such as File Transfer Protocol (FTP).
Some of the principal findings include:
- 71% are concerned with the current security of file transfers
- 54% admit they do not currently monitor FTP usage
- 60% use FTP for information sharing
- 66% use physical media (e.g., tapes, CDs, DVDs, USB drives, etc.)
- 52% e-mail work files through personal e-mail accounts (e.g., Gmail, Yahoo, etc.)
It really beggars the questions as to how much of your company and personal information is floating around systems that it shouldn’t be. If you’re interested in more you can download the report here after registering.
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