Google succumbs on privacy policy

Google CEO Eric Schmidt

By Yoon Ja-young

Google succumbed to the request by telecommunications regulators here to tweak its privacy policy for Korean users to abide with local laws. The announcement by the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) Thursday marked a critical moment for the U.S. Internet giant as it has been serious about avoiding country-specific rules and implementing the same conditions to customers across the world.

Google’s intentions to bend its rules were first reported by The Korea Times last week.

KCC, the country’s telecommunications regulator, announced Thursday that Google handed in supplementary measures for its privacy policy, accepting the regulator’s recommendation.

Google had announced earlier its plan to integrate private information of its services, including Gmail, Google Plus and YouTube, which sparked concerns that it could seriously hurt the privacy of Internet users.

The regulator had determined that Google’s new policy failed to abide by the local law, and thus recommended Google in February that it should comprehensively explain the purpose of its using private information, and get clear agreement from the user. It also recommended that Google guarantee choices for users who don’t want to accept Google’s privacy policy.

Accepting the government recommendation, Google agreed that it would clarify and explain in detail which of the private information it will be collecting and for what purpose. It would also inform how long they will be using the information and how it can be destroyed, on top of adding contacts for the Google department in charge of protecting private information.

It will enable the users to manage their own private information. Those who don’t want the integration of Google accounts can choose to use multiple accounts.

“It would be a good example of a global business making effort to guarantee the rights of the users and respect local law, through cooperation with the government,” a spokesperson for the regulator said.

“Privacy is an important issue for our users and for Google. It is also important to the Korean government, which has raised questions about our updated Privacy Policy. We place great importance on respecting the law in all countries where we operate, so we’ve worked closely with Korean regulators in recent weeks to answer their questions and address their concerns,” said Lois Kim, head of communications at Google Korea.

“As a result of these discussions, we have agreed to provide additional information — as a supplement to our single global policy — for our Korean users to help them better understand our approach to privacy, as well as the tools they can use to manage and ensure the security of the information they choose to store in their Google Accounts,” she said.