CDT Urges Google’s Lawyers to Reconsider Privacy Protections In Letter

CDT, EFF, and other commenters on the Google Books settlement sent a letter to Google’s lawyers yesterday asking the company to reconsider the privacy protections it will build into Google Books, taking advantage of the last-minute extension in the case. Google and the authors and publishers who sued the company are currently renegotiating the proposed settlement in order to resolve concerns raised by the Department of Justice last month [http://thepublicindex.org/docs/letters/usa.pdf]. CDT filed a brief on the original settlement, arguing that it should be approved, but recommending that strong, enforceable privacy safeguards be put in place. Yesterday’s letter asks that Google reconsider our recommendations, and similar ones from other advocates, in light of the extension.

Google took some good steps in a privacy policy posted last month, but those commitments are incomplete and not adequately enforceable by the Court. Now that the deadline has been lifted, Google has the chance to make stronger commitments to reader privacy that the Court will have the authority to enforce. The delay, while certainly a blow to the progress of the settlement, provides an opportunity to improve it. While the Justice Department’s concerns the parties are currently addressing did not include reader privacy, the lack of adequate safeguards nonetheless remains a problem – one that, given CDT’s brief and those of the other signers of today’s letter, Google is certainly aware of and has the resources to address. In light of the scrutiny the settlement has received and the recent setback, Google would do well to improve the settlement in all the ways it can. Protecting reader privacy should be an easy one.