Kim Yoo-chul reports:
U.S. Internet giant Google is in talks with telecommunications regulators here over the possibilities of tweaking its privacy policy for Korean users to abide with local laws, several industry sources said.
It remains to be seen how willing Google is to change its policy for Koreans, particularly as it has been serious about avoiding country-specific rules and implementing the same conditions to customers across the world.
Under Google’s new privacy policy introduced in January, private data collected by one Google service can be shared with other platforms, including Gmail, YouTube and Blogger.
However, the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) has recommended Google revise its policy, claiming it infringes on the legal rights of Koreans who have had more control over how their data is collected and used.
According to officials at Google Korea, it is considering the recommendations seriously, KCC officials told The Korea Times.
Read more on Korea Times.
So when governments are serious, Google may bend/change? Doesn’t that suggest that if our own government were serious about protecting our privacy, Google might bend here, too? Or is Google less afraid of our own government than other governments?
A few places have reported that the FTC is looking at Google’s new privacy policy to see if it conflicts with their settlement with Google. Hopefully, any such review will not drag on and we’ll get a quick answer. Somehow, however, the likelihood of the FTC moving quickly on this does not seem likely.