Google Woes in the EU Include Conviction for Executives Over Video Posting

Posted on March 13, 2010 by Peter Vogel

The recent conviction of 3 Google executives in Italy for a video posted on Google which showed the bullying of a disable teenager captured many headlines. No question that the video was in poor taste and Google took the video down within 24 hours of its posting after Google got 2 complaints. The conviction of the Google’s global privacy counsel, Peter Fleischer and two other executives raises significant issues. A fourth Google executive was acquitted, and Google plans to appeal these convictions. Does it make sense that Google, or any other ISP (Internet Service Provider), be liable for content posted over which the ISP has no control? The US Communications Decency Act of 1996 protects ISPs from liability since they have no control over content posted. How Google fares with these convictions may have an interesting impact on ISPs around the world.

Google Street View May Breach EU Law

Only to make things more complicated recent reports that the Google’s Street View violates EU Data Protection laws since they retain the images for too long. As well it was reported that “Switzerland’s data-protection agency in November sued Google for allegedly failing to comply with proposals to make it harder to identify people and cars on Street View.” Of course disputes regarding Street View are not new since claims of breach of privacy have been under way since at least 2008 in Japan.

Google has More EU Antitrust Problems

ComScore recently reported that Google has about 79% of the searches in the EU and the EU renewed its investigation about Google anticompetitive behavior. Google claims that Microsoft may be the source of the investigation since Microsoft owns one of the companies that complained. It seems reasonable to assume that the search engine wars will continue, but how the EU ultimately rules may have a far reaching impact.

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e-Discovery Complicates Public Records Requests

Posted on September 15, 2009 by Peter Vogel

One might ask if every public employee must keep every email forever given this report that the Massachusetts Secretary of State ordered the seizure of City of Boston computers searching for deleted emails. This order follows a public records request by the Boston Globe to the Mayor’s office and which yielded only 18 emails during a 6 month period. If the computer forensics specialist cannot find the deleted emails one may only guess what can happen, including possible criminal proceedings.

Saving Every Email Forever

There are products that allow companies to save every email that is delivered to the mail server before the recipient ever gets the emails, which means that as we routinely delete junk, spam, or personal emails they are nonetheless saved forever. Of course how much storage does one need to save every email forever? Probably more than exists. So as a matter of reality businesses must establish Records Retention Policies that are practical and comport with actual practice and allow for the destruction of junk, spam, and personal email.

Google to the Rescue

After Google acquired Postini a couple of years ago it was not clear what was going on until Google announced its entry into e-Discovery with this bargain: “Flat $45 per user per year for up to 10 years of retention. Email archiving has never been simpler or more affordable.” Since ComScore reports that about 65% of all searches are conducted on Google one can be pretty much assured that every Judge in the US uses Google, so litigants probably will be on safe ground to tell Judges that all emails are stored on Google’s systems. Google not only offers emails on their Cloud with specialized search software, but also the peace of mind that Judges probably will think this a great idea to assure that emails are not destroyed.

 
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