Google's deputy chief legal adviser responds to people's privacy concerns

Recently, Google's Deputy Chief Legal Officer gave an interview to the Mercury News, responding to widespread public concerns about Google's privacy policies.

**Q:** Privacy International recently ranked Google’s privacy practices as the worst among all major internet companies. In their interim report, they described Google as engaging in comprehensive surveillance of consumers and having a deep-seated hostility toward privacy.

**A:** The accusations in the report misunderstand some of our products. We were very disappointed that Google did not have the opportunity to respond to the criticisms before the report was released, and the report also overlooked many things we do well. For example, we anonymize our search logs after 18 months, and no other search company has publicly stated a limited retention period.