Canadian COMPETITION LAW

On February 24, 2012, Canada’s Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart sent an open letter to Google to request additional information about Google’s new privacy policy and set out some concerns.  The Commissioner’s letter follows a meeting between representatives of the Office of the Privacy Commissioner and Google (see: Letter to Google regarding privacy policy changes).

As has been widely reported, Google is taking steps to reduce the number of its privacy policies (currently over 70) relating to its many products to a single general privacy policy (while retaining some product-specific privacy policies) (see e.g.: Advertising Update: Google’s New Privacy Policy).

In making the announcement, the Commissioner said:

“I am writing further to Google’s recently announced plans to change its privacy policy, effective March 1, 2012, and further to a meeting between a representative of Google and officials from my Office. I am pleased to take this opportunity to provide you with some of our feedback and to request some additional information on certain practices.

As we understand it, Google has a number of goals that it wishes to achieve through this effort. Primarily, the company is aiming to reduce the number of privacy policies that currently exist (over 70) in relation to its many different products and services to one general privacy policy. In addition to that general policy, Google will still retain a small number of product-specific policies (e.g., for Google Wallet) where it believes that this makes sense or is otherwise required by law. The other goals are to create a simpler, more intuitive user experience across multiple Google products; improve search results; and make ads more relevant.

I would first like to acknowledge Google’s efforts to alert users to the new policy. Google has worked hard to simplify and streamline its privacy policy. We have long been calling for better, more user-friendly privacy policies and yours is a step in the right direction.  We do, however, have a number of questions and concerns, as outlined below, that we would appreciate receiving a response from you on.”

Some of the concerns raised by the Commissioner in her open letter to Google include: data retention (e.g., i.e., the fact that Google’s new uniform policy does not provide any timelines for the deletion of data), linking of services and personal information for Google account users (e.g., Google’s new policy will remove the separation between its various products, i.e., link all of a user’s data together when the user logs in), using names provided for Google Profiles across all services offered by Google (and replacing past names associated with Google accounts) and functionality issues associated with Android users (e.g., little choice for Android users that choose not to sign in and have all of their services linked together):

“Although Google has stated that some of its services can be used without signing into an account, this is not very practical if a user is accessing those services via an Android phone. While signed-out users will be able to make calls and send texts, for instance, they will not be able to download new applications, update those already installed or synchronize the phone with G-mail or Calendar. In effect, it appears that there is very little choice for Android users should they not wish Google to have the ability to link all of the services they use. This is of particular concern given the potential ease with which accounts could be linked together on the basis of the device identifier information that Google collects. We would appreciate receiving comments from Google with respect to such linking of vast quantities of personal information as a condition of service to use the Android phone.”

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