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The Privacy Policies of Internet Intermediaries: High-tech Responsibility in the Multi-stakeholder Nexus

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Internet corporations and privacy

An EU team studied how internet corporations deal with privacy concerns. The work focused on Google, finding that the company can shape norms about privacy and also that its publicly expressed understanding of privacy has changed in limited but sophisticated ways since 2010.

Digital Economy icon Digital Economy
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A small number of corporations now have considerable control of access to information, while simultaneously collecting unprecedented amounts of information about users. The concentration of information leads to growing concerns about privacy. The EU-funded INTERNET PRIVACY (The privacy policies of internet intermediaries: High-tech responsibility in the multi-stakeholder nexus) project analysed how such companies seek to shape understanding of internet privacy. Data collection partly involved content analysis. The team studied Google’s privacy policies and other works, including a book by the company’s executives. Other sources included the statements of experts, and panellists on the Google Advisory Council public meetings of 2014. One benefit of conducting such an analysis was that project researchers improved their skills in content analysis. The study also yielded three conclusions. Firstly, companies such as Google are actors of great political importance. The company has the resources and will to comprehensively shape political and moral norms about various topics, including privacy. Secondly, project researchers found that Google and similar corporations respond to institutional pressures in more complex and intricate ways than companies ever have before. The study documented Google’s response to a 2014 ruling by the EU Court of Justice concerning users’ ‘Right to be Forgotten’. Although Google complied with the ruling, the corporation also sought to undermine the ruling’s credentials and global exposure. The project further showed that Google’s response to the ruling remains effectively unchanged despite criticism the company received about the case. The final conclusion was that Google’s published understanding of internet privacy and global governance has changed in subtle and sophisticated ways since 2010. The finding relates to changes made in published understandings in response to events surrounding the WikiLeaks disclosure of 2010 and the (United States) National Security Agency files incident of 2013. Hence, the project team concluded that corporations can keep their published understandings of global governance relatively intact during troubling periods. INTERNET PRIVACY results benefit European society by suggesting that close attention to internet businesses such as Google keeps them accountable. The project’s work helps European data protection agencies to use popular opinion to support demands made against internet corporations.

Keywords

Internet, internet corporations, privacy, Google, INTERNET PRIVACY, intermediaries

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