Google "Responds" to Book Search Privacy Concerns

On Saturday, we wrote that the amended Google Book Settlement fails to answer the core privacy problems raised by the ACLU, the EFF and the Samuelson Clinic.

Last night, at a debate at the Commonwealth Club on the future of books, U.C. Berkeley Professor Pamela Samuelson asked Google Books Engineering Director Dan Clancy why the settlement neglected to address privacy. Clancy's response? "We didn't think the settlement was the right place to discuss this."

To be clear, the amended settlement weighs in at a hefty 173 pages and touches on everything but the kitchen sink and, unfortunately, the privacy of Google Book Search users. If Google doesn't feel that the Settlement is the appropriate place to ensure that Google Book Search doesn't become a one- stop shop for government and third party fishing expeditions into the private lives of Americans, and it hasn't been resolved in its current Privacy Policy or its letter to the FTC, we have to ask where and when it will actually get around to addressing this crucial issue.