Risk: Informational
Search giant Google has recently announced that it welcomes the introduction of a basic set of global privacy laws. Google's privacy chief, Peter Fleischer, recently said: "Every time a person uses a credit card their information may cross six or seven national boundaries," and this information can easily move between countries that have poor or no privacy laws.
It's somewhat of a surprise that Google has taken this stance on privacy. Earlier this year Privacy International, an independent organisation with the primary aim of advocacy and support, wrote an open letter to Google, stating: "You may be aware that Privacy International yesterday published its first privacy ranking of leading companies operating on the Internet. Google Inc performed very poorly, scoring lowest among the other major companies that we surveyed."
Peter Fleischer went on to say that he recommended adopting the APEC guidelines agreed by some Asia-Pacific countries, which have nine principles that aim to protect the individual and safeguard data collection. They have been adopted by countries ranging from Australia to Vietnam, but have been criticised in the past for a variety of reasons.