Celebrating Data Privacy Day

Did you know that today is an international holiday, one that's celebrated in the U.S., Canada, and 27 countries in Europe? Known as Data Privacy Day in North America and Data Protection Day in Europe, today is meant to increase public awareness about privacy in the information age. To mark this occasion, on the Official Google Blog we've unveiled our Privacy Principles, which guide the decisions we make as we create products and services that offer transparency and control.



We've also been participating in several special industry events. Last Friday, Global Privacy Counsel Jane Horvath spoke on a panel at the University of North Carolina called, "Reader Privacy: Should Library Standards for Privacy Apply in the Digital World?" And today at the University of California at Berkeley's Boalt Law School, the Federal Trade Commission is holding the second of a three-part series of public roundtable discussions about the privacy issues raised by the innovations of the 21st century. Throughout the day, industry representatives, regulators, advocacy groups, and academics will be giving talks and appearing on panels about social networking, cloud computing, mobile computing and policy. Nicole Wong, Vice President and Deputy General Counsel at Google, will be appearing alongside representatives from other companies (including Facebook and LinkedIn) and advocacy groups on the day's second panel, "Privacy Implications of Social Networking and Other Platform Providers."

In Brussels, Google privacy and security engineer Alma Whitten appeared Wednesday on a panel at the European Parliament called "Awareness and Empowerment: The Role of Users in Privacy Protection." Today she is giving the very first Google Brussels TechTalk, offering an engineering point of view on online privacy. And on Friday, Global Privacy Counsel Peter Fleischer will speak at the opening panel, "Forgetfulness and Data Retention," of the third annual Computers, Privacy, and Data Protection Conference, of which Google is a sponsor.

You can learn more about our everyday efforts to empower users with transparency and choice at the Google Privacy Center and on our YouTube channel.

Posted by Jane Horvath and Peter Fleischer, Global Privacy Counsel

Introducing Brussels TechTalks

Ever wondered how exactly Google is tackling the big existing technology problems that the online world faces ? Want to take a look behind the curtain of our engineering operations and learn from the people who actually work on the Google products and services day-in, day-out? Here's your chance: We are introducing the Google Brussels TechTalks for EU policy makers!

This will be an ongoing series, usually happening over lunch-time. We provide sandwiches and drinks - and introduce the hot topics. You ask tough questions. Everyone benefits. The talks will take place in our new Brussels office. In case you are unable to make it in person, we will record the presentations (but not the Q&A which will be off the record) and put it online later. The topics and dates will be published on this blog.

Our first session takes place on January 28, which is Data Privacy Day. Dr. Alma Whitten, a software engineer for security and privacy, will offer “An engineer's vision for Internet privacy".

Policy makers increasingly are embracing the concept of "privacy by design." What does this mean in practice? Is privacy an impediment to innovation in technology, or is innovation in technology the means for users to protect their privacy in today's online world?

Google has made user control of their privacy preferences a cornerstone of its product development. We recently launched a Privacy Dashboard that gives users a picture on what data Google stores in their account. When we rolled out advertising based on user's interests, we offered them a Ads Preference Manager which discloses the various interest categories associated with your browser and allow users to modify or decline all such advertising. Alma will discuss these and other case studies that illustrate how Google's engineers developed technological solutions to empower users and protect their privacy.

Alma joined Google in 2003 and is currently the Head for Google's Applied Security engineering team and the engineering lead for privacy. Her work within Google has maintained a strong focus on protecting the privacy of Google's users, and includes security and privacy policy development and consultation, development of engineering process, and design and implementation of technical controls. She has a long history of working on the protection of Google's log data.

If you want to attend, please register here. This event is primarily aimed at policy makers from EU institutions, but we'll be happy to welcome a wider audience if we have enough chairs.

When: Thursday 28 January, 12:15 - 13:45 hours CET (Sandwich lunch provided).
Where: Google Brussels, Chaussée D'Etterbeek 180 - Steenweg op Etterbeek 180, 2nd floor, 1040 Brussels

Posted by Sebastian Mueller, European Policy Manager and Matthias Graf, European Head of Engineering Communications

Meeting the EU's 2020 challenge

New years start with resolutions and a new decade calls for setting a decade long goal. A new European Commission takes office this month and it has published an ambitious agenda aimed at making sure Europe stays out in front of the globally competitive race in 2020. Entitled the EU2020 Communication, the Commission proposes "a new sustainable social market economy, a smarter, greener economy where our prosperity will result from innovation and from using resources better, and where knowledge will be the key input."

The Commission has asked for comments on its ideas and today we are making public our contribution.

We endorse the 2020 agenda, particularly its emphasis on planting the seeds for a flowering of the knowledge economy. But we are concerned that the Commission agenda is not sufficiently radical to cope with a fundamental, paradigm-shifting transformation. This blog is itself (albeit a very modest) part of that change.

This shift opens up dramatic new vistas, for entrepreneurs and consumers. Anybody with a good idea can create - and profit. Barriers to entry are low to non-existent - for example, many business models are based on smart evaluations of existing databases. The need for big investments are minimized. New pop stars such as Susan Boyle are created overnight on YouTube. Software start-ups are standing on the shoulders of open source coders. Google itself started little more than a decade ago in a garage.

If the paradigm is changing, it is no surprise that regulation needs to be reviewed to ensure that is supports creativity, innovation, respect of fundamental rights in this world. It is unlikely that overarching policy goals change, but the means to attaining them might well. Our response begins to explore that territory, while knowing that much deeper policy discussion will be an exciting feature of the new Commission.

Europe’s Heads of State will provide their views on the 2020 agenda at a summit in March. The Commission then will begin to work on legislative proposals for the member countries and European Parliament to approve. Google is of course in regular contact with all three institutions to promote the ideas and views contained in our response. Our hope is for Europe to lay the policy framework so the world’s next Google may be born on this side of the Atlantic Ocean.

Posted by Simon Hampton, Director of European Public Policy.

Introducing the Breaking Borders Awards

Last year we celebrated the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. When I visited Berlin last November to participate in a conference entitled Breaking Borders, politicians, policy makers, netizens and journalists all agreed on the importance of freedom of expression for a functioning democracy. The web is providing once unimaginable possibilities for political participation, free exchange of information and democratic movements around the world.

As part of the Berlin conference, we announced a plan to work with an NGO called Global Voices, and with Thomson Reuters, to establish a set of Breaking Borders Awards.

We are now delighted to share further details about the awards and to invite nominations. The awards will honor outstanding web projects by individuals or groups who have shown courage, energy and resourcefulness in using the Internet to promote freedom of expression, making us aware of diverse political viewpoints and standing up to those who censor information. The winners will be those who are making a real difference.

Closing date for submissions is February 15. Details on how to apply and the opportunities to join the award committee can be found on the website.

Posted by Rachel Whetstone, Vice President Global Communications and Public Affairs