Study: Google Last in Privacy Protection

Advocacy group Privacy International says California-based Google ranks last among 12 major Internet-based companies when users’ privacy is concerned.

The London-based organization based its findings on the sheer size of Google plus the company’s ability to share user data between its various subsidiaries, E-commerce News reported.

Throughout our research, we have found numerous deficiencies and hostilities in Google’s approach to privacy that go well beyond those of other organizations, Privacy International says in its report, A Race to the Bottom – Privacy Ranking of Internet Service Companies.

Other companies share some of the negative elements, the report said, but none comes close to Google.

Google’s status in the ranking is also due to its aggressive use of invasive or potentially invasive technologies and techniques, the report said.

The problem, the report said, is beyond tracking user data and delivering targeted ads. We have witnessed an attitude to privacy within Google that at its most blatant is hostile, and at its most benign is ambivalent, it said.

Companies in the survey included Amazon, AOL, BBC, Facebook, Microsoft, MySpace, Yahoo! and Wikipedia.