Don’t be evil—much

By Michael Fraase

Wednesday, 23 December 2009 04:50PM CST

Section: Privacy

ScroogledDon’t be evil. That’s Google’s widely known corporate motto. Too bad it’s been rubbed away completely like button labels on a cheap remote control.

As the network neutrality debate has grown more intense, Google has stepped up its public relations machinery to pump out policy statement after policy statement advocating the benefits—no, the necessity—of transparency and free expression.

David Kravets, writing for Wired, cites a Google policy statement dated December 16, 2009 as saying, it was a “company that believes deeply in free expression” and that it was “determined to continue to do our part and make new, significant contributions to promote free expression in 2010.”

Because we must not have gotten it the first time, in a policy statement dated December 18, 2009, Google admits it hasn’t “always done a good job of talking about Google’s philosophical approach to privacy overall—or sharing our strong belief in harnessing data to create products and services that are useful for our users.” Google goes on to write that it’s spent the past several weeks talking with “policymakers, consumer advocates, think tanks, trade associations, and journalists” about Google’s approach to privacy. The company touts three major privacy initiatives for 2009: interest-based advertising, the data libration front, and Google Dashboard. “For 2010, we’re looking forward to taking even more steps to help users protect their privacy,” ends the policy statement.

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