SYDNEY, Australia -- Following the media lashing that Google received after they used Google Street View cars to collect data from wifi networks, Google installed Alma Whitten as the privacy director in 2010. Google was in hot water again when the now discontinued Google Buzz social network was released, and collected data, contacts and emails from individuals without their permission. These two privacy breaches caused significant loss in public perception of Google, and also resulted in significant fines for privacy breaches.

Following these privacy breaches, which have since been played out in the public eye, Google appointed a specialised privacy director to ensure that their privacy legislation complies with changing standards across the globe. Based in theLondon branch of Google, the 10 year veteran at the tech giant, Alma Whitten has had to adapt to changing technology and legal fields. Google released the news today, thanking Mrs Whitten for her “hard work to ensure that our user’s data is kept safe and secure”.

Lawrence You will transition into the position as privacy director over the coming few months, and will be working out of the Mountain View complex in California. Being based at the Google headquarters should see closer involvement with the development teams, and provide more direct support for the privacy department.

Mr You will be inheriting a busy portfolio as there are ongoing joint action cases in Europe about documented privacy breaches. Although the expected financial losses of the cases would be minimal, it would once again affect the public perception of the company throughout Europe. Another development that is sure to create new technology privacy chapters in legal textbooks is the upcoming release of the user mounted Google Glass. Australian federal senator Cory Bernadi has already labelled the Google Glass project as “the end of privacy, with everything filmed and trackable”. With this new technology onto the market, it is important the Google makes sure that its privacy department has everything covered to ensure no major privacy breaches once again soil the name of the company.

The ongoing privacy dramas that have plagued Google have highlighted the importance of technology and telecommunication companies ensuring that they have solid privacy policies in place. Technology companies need to ensure that all software, programs, websites and forms come under a privacy protection policy. Many technology and telecommunication providers are obtaining privacy template documents that can cover a technology company for any privacy breaches. By purchasing a pre-drafted template that can be adapted to the specific business needs of a company, companies can obtain a privacy policy drafted by some of the most respected technology lawyers in Australia, for a fraction of the cost. When businesses calculate the possible consequences of a privacy breach, it is very easy to justify the outlay required to provide adequate legal privacy protection from qualified technology lawyers.

http://technologylawyer.com.au/

For more information on the current Google privacy guidelines - http://www.google.com.au/intl/en-GB/policies/