Adult Supervision

Although it should be common sense to most technology firms, especially ones as smart as Google, apparently some adults need to step in and enforce ground rules for privacy. In a fist-time enforcement of the US-EU Safe Harbor Act by the FTC, Google has opted to settle and "put this behind' itself.

The FTC wrote in a statement, "The proposed settlement bars the company from future privacy misrepresentations, requires it to implement a comprehensive privacy program, and calls for regular, independent privacy audits for the next 20 years."

In a contrite but typically obtuse blog post Google apologized for the lack of transparency and promised to do better. There may be no monetary damages (yet), but being grounded for 20 years is pretty significant. It's a strong message to the other kids to start being careful about privacy.

Google's FTC Settlement Over Privacy Breach Makes History