US Consumer Group Speculates Over Google’s Scruples

Posted Sunday 1st February 2009 by admin in SEM News.

Data retention is a massive issue in any society where citizen’s right to privacy is protected by a written or unwritten constitution. However currently in the US the definition of constitutionally protected rights seems to be only as effective as the manifold amendments attached to them. The collation and storage of electronic medical records has consumer groups up in arms with strongly worded letters flying to and from congress.

You might rightly ask: where does the search engine Google come into this? The answer shows a potentially sinister step in Google’s maturation as a corporate entity with the formation of Google Health. This is an online database where consumers can store their medical records for free. One begs the question: if the service is for free then how does Google plan to actually create revenue without utilizing the data of users to sell advertising?

Google Health is set up so that user profiles can be created which allows a central electronic repository to their medical records. Medical conditions and medication can be searched through an information service that provides information, leaving a trail of data that Google then amalgamates as it does with other applications. This data is theirs and cannot be traced to consumers but is still valuable to certain healthcare companies as it is reflective of what users are researching.

Google Health maintains a strict privacy policy on both identified and de-identified data, however a US consumer watchdog group has drawn attention to rumours that Google is part of a lobbying group attempting to work in certain loophole amendments into constitutional laws governing consumer privacy. One of the amendments comes in an economic stimulus package that clears companies to sell private medical information for the purposes of ‘research’.

It is essential to point out that the consumer watchdog provides absolutely no evidence that Google has been involved in any lobbying however if an amendment is passed then Google will have a database of information that could potentially be legally sold for great revenue. With Google’s anti-evil corporate stance and squeaky clean uber innovative image, consumer confidence might stretch to accepting Google’s rebuttal of the consumer watchdog’s claims but Google is looking increasingly corporate.

The fact of the matter is that there are powers at work in Washington trying to get this amendment pushed through and listed in Google Health’s partners are some of the largest health companies in the US. If Google are not involved directly in lobbying then it would be naive to think that one of its partners was not. Healthcare companies have an abysmal track record of consumer confidence and the thought of jump starting the economy by compromising constitutional rights is something you would associate with them; but surely not with Google?

If Google persists in keeping such corporate company then how long will it maintain its public image which essentially revolves around data and consumer confidence? How far can Google stray from its core business of search and ads before its main business becomes consumer data retention? One thing is for certain, the concept of data retention within our increasingly electronic existence is big business and some might say almost too self-regulatory and reactive.

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