Marissa's Internet Law Blog

Welcome to my blog! For those who don’t already know, I am writing this blog as my final project for my freshman seminar, Cyberspace in Court. My project will be a blog focusing on Google’s policies toward user privacy, especially their pending deal with DoubleClick and their collection of personally identifiable data without users’ awareness or consent.

Privacy is one of the most important issues facing today’s society. Technologies like the Internet have made it easy to find information without face-to-face contact with other people, producing an impression of increased privacy. However, this sense of privacy is largely an illusion. In addition to providing convenience for everyday people, technology also enables big companies and the government to monitor people’s activities more than ever before.

I decided to focus on Google because it is one of the most useful, well-known, and widely-used web sites in the world. I use Google a lot, and I didn’t know until recently how much of what I do is tracked and recorded. 

Basically, Google’s privacy policy (http://www.google.com/intl/en/privacypolicy.html) says that among the data Google collects from its users are:

1. Lists of users’ search queries, which are tied to particular users through the use of cookies

2. Internet protocol (IP) addresses

3. Which links and advertisements users click on

4. Any data that users voluntarily provide when signing up for Google’s services

Google says it uses these data to personalize users’ experiences, target ads more specifically, conduct research to improve its services and develop new ones, and ensure the functioning of their site. 

Google users can be divided into two groups: those who register for Google accounts by voluntarily providing personal data and those who use Google without creating accounts. The focus of my project will be the second group of people. Google’s policy of collecting data about this group is potentially more problematic, as these users have not consented to providing data and are not necessarily aware of what information Google is collecting about them.

In my next posts I will discuss the legal aspects of what Google is doing. What laws exist in the United States to protect the privacy rights of people who browse the Internet? Then I will discuss why privacy is so important and how it is impacted by technology. Next I will go into more detail on what data Google collects, what Google can use the data for, how the merger with DoubleClick will expand Google’s data-gathering powers, and what limits Google places on itself through its privacy policy. Then I will describe the dangers of third parties accessing this information, compare Google to other search engines in terms of privacy, and explain the arguments for and against limiting websites’ ability to gather data about their users. Finally I will give my opinion on what should be done legally to protect Internet privacy and what restrictions, if any, should be placed on search engines like Google. Along the way I may post about new developments related to my topic.