A Race to the Bottom - Privacy Ranking of Internet Service Companies

Report prepared by the London-based Privacy International following a six-month investigation into the privacy practices of key Internet based companies.

"The ranking lists the best and the worst performers both in Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 across the full spectrum of search, email, e-commerce and social networking sites."

Google is singled out for particularly trenchant criticism, and is put in the  "Comprehensive consumer surveillance & entrenched hostility to privacy" category. As you would expect, Google contests this assessment, and here is a piece by Matt Cutts (a Google staffer) countering the Privacy International claims. Meanwhile, Privacy International accuses Google of smear tactics against it. Services covered in the report include:

• Amazon
• AOL
• Apple
• BBC
• Bebo
• eBay
• Facebook
• Friendster
• Google
• Hi5
• Last.fm
• LinkedIn
• LiveJournal
• Microsoft
• Myspace
• Orkut
• Reunion.com
• Skype
• Wikipedia
• Windows Live Space
• Xanga
• Yahoo!
• YouTube

An interim report is available in PDF format [60 kB PDF], with a fuller report due in Autumn 2007.

Comments

[Joe Clarke]

This is a very interesting report, adding to the privacy debate. It will be of considerable use in teaching some aspects of the IT curriculum. Schools and colleges should encourage people to be aware of the issues when using some of these very popular services. While some of the views might be contentious they can be used to stimulate debate.