Google’s privacy team comes to Washington
March 28th, 2008 | Published in Google Public Policy
When I joined Google last fall, one of things that struck me was the diverse group of people who were thinking about privacy issues throughout the company -- not just lawyers like me, but also engineers, network security experts, and product developers. Given Google's national and global reach, it's rare to get the people who work in privacy at Google together in one room. That's why I'm happy when events like this week's International Association of Privacy Professional's Annual Privacy Summit come around and give us an opportunity to get together. In addition to geeking out with other privacy specialists on topics like "notice and consent," we took advantage of this reunion of sorts in Washington D.C. this week to:
- Participate in IAPP Summit events, including a panel on behavioral targeting in which Global Privacy Counsel Peter Fleischer described Google's contextual ad serving approach and suggested ways in which Google and other advertisers can provide even better privacy notice to users;
- Hit the IAPP Exhibition Hall, where we shared our Google Privacy Channel on YouTube and our newly revamped, multimedia Privacy Center with fellow IAPP attendees;
- Continue our ongoing dialogue with the FTC about the Online Behavioral Targeting Privacy Principles they've proposed, and underscore our support for establishing self-regulatory practices in the online advertising space that promote transparency, consumer choice, and security; and
- Convene a group of privacy advocates, academics and experts for a lively roundtable discussion at Google's new DC digs on the challenges inherent in harnessing the benefits of data while protecting user privacy.