Google Books Settlement and Privacy Concerns
NPR had a radio story the other day on the Google Books settlement and the privacy concerns raised by authors and publishers. It’s short but does a great job of covering the the issue.
For those that don’t know, Google has been working on a project to scan millions of library books and put them online. Essentially, doing for books what Google has already done for the Internet; making them searchable and accessible. The project is the subject of a copyright lawsuit filed by authors and publishers and a tentative settlement is waiting approval from the judge (which is likely to come this fall). The problem for some authors and publishers, however, is that the settlement covers the copyright issue but doesn’t address Google’s practice of tracking and storing users’ personal search and reading habits. The danger is that this private information could be used inappropriately. The example given in the NPR piece is where your health insurance company may find out what medical books (and diseases) you are searching for and reading. The EFF and ACLU don’t want Google to save this kind of reader data.
To get a better understanding of the issue, I recommend listening to the full NPR story.
–Matt
