Privacy International is using strong words like “Google has embarked on a smear campaign within the media to discredit both PI and the report”. It says more to follow. We’ll see if there is any substance to this. One thing is for sure, there is plenty of discussion out there. Thought provoking posts by Danny Sullivan and Donna Bogatin with considerable dirt.
One thing is certain, Privacy International doesn’t think it’s important enough to put out a full reply on a weekend, that means it loses some credibility in my eyes.
The conversation runs 24/7 out there not M-F 9-5.
UPDATE: I take that back, Privacy International just published the new letter which is addressed to Eric Schmidt.
So who is this Microsoft employee? And why wasn’t this person removed from the process before the report was created?
UPDATE #2: Matt Cutts has weighed in on the issues in a thoughtful way.
[…] also read the reaction of Battelle, David Dalka, Alchemy, and tons of other blogs, but I found no problem with how Google deal with the personal […]
After reading the Matt Cutts entry, I feel he made some very important points. Those who state that Google collects too much user info should simply not use Google products or services.