Google Is Watching You

Digital privacy advocate and secret smoker Kevin Bankston was outed on Google's Street View. So, what else does the Internet know about us?

by Catherine Holahan

Kevin Bankston didn't think anyone would notice his little cigarette break. His family didn't know he sometimes snuck a smoke. So Bankston was surprised when a photo of him smoking outside his San Francisco office appeared online several years ago on Amazon.com's (AMZN) now-defunct A9.com map service. He was even more shocked when, in May, he found out he was caught again on candid camera—possibly smoking—this time by Google's (GOOG) new "Street View" map service.

Bloggers began buzzing about Bankston's double-lightning-strike luck, and the two photos now appear all over the Internet. A Web search for "Kevin Bankston smokes" reveals more than 20,000 links. "I felt somewhat embarrassed and a bit spied upon," says Bankston. "I am now thoroughly outed as a cigarette smoker."

Privacy Advocates Seek Protections

Coincidentally, Bankston also happens to be one of the leading advocates for digital privacy. An attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, he's trying to turn his personal problem into a larger point: In the quest to fill the Web with information, online companies are often trampling on individuals' right to privacy, says Bankston.

Of course, the trade-off between privacy and Web innovation is nothing new. The Internet's most popular services enable people to do everything from research ailments to virtually tour Times Square—for free. But when you type in a Web search, your words are stored by Google and other search providers, along with information tying those words to your personal computer. If you surf the Web, the pages you visit and what you do on them are tracked with "cookies," tiny text files that download to your computer so they can report back to their ad network owners.

But while Web services have long made their money tailoring advertisements to individuals based on their online doings, more users are paying attention, and some are starting to balk. Consumer advocates and privacy experts have renewed

cries for stricter guidelines—even new laws—that would change the way many Web companies do business.

Curbing Data Retention

Government agencies in the U.S. and overseas are taking notice. The European Union's Data Protection Working Party has heavily criticized Google's retention of search data. In the U.S., the Federal Trade Commission is reviewing whether to allow a string of proposed acquisitions of ad networks by major search companies. Those deals—Google's $3.1 billion takeover of DoubleClick (DCLK), Microsoft's (MSFT) $6 billion buyout of aQuantive (AQNT), and Yahoo!'s (YHOO) $720 million purchase of Right Media—would enable the big search providers to start tracking which Web sites individuals visit outside their own networks (see BusinessWeek.com, 5/21/07, "Behind Those Web Mergers").

Already, some of the pushback has resulted in change. In June, Google said it would scale back how long it retains search data from 24 months to 18 months and would consider letting its cookies expire earlier. In response to complaints, Google also made it easier to have an image removed from its map services, which have captured people in compromising positions such as sunbathing and flashing underwear. Bankston's photo is no longer on the site.

Many privacy advocates want more concessions. Bankston would like Google to blur the faces of everyone in its map pictures. Others would like to see search words and data stored only for as long as it takes to deliver the immediate search results and related ads. Still others would like all companies that use cookies to alert users regularly and proactively give them the option not to be tracked.