Inquirer: Google's privacy reform is a hoax

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/09/12/google-privacy-reform-hoax

Google's privacy reform is a hoax

Pulling the wool over privacy advocates' eyes

By Egan Orion: Friday, 12 September 2008, 5:57 PM

AFTER GOOGLE announced Monday that it would begin removing Internet  
addresses from web search records after only nine months instead of  
its former 18 month retention period, it drew praise for that reform  
from European Commission privacy regulators and the press.

The only problem is that Google's announcement was just a ploy to  
deflect criticism and its web search archives will still contain data  
identifying individuals' online search activity for at least 18 months.

Because Google's initial announcement was rather vague and tentative  
as well as very light on implementation details, a Cnet reporter  
contacted Google requesting more information. As he put it, Google's  
reply was "extremely interesting." In an email response, Google said:

"After nine months, we will change some of the bits in the IP address  
in the logs; after 18 months we remove the last eight bits in the IP  
address and change the cookie information.

"It is difficult to guarantee complete anonymisation, but we believe  
these changes will make it very unlikely users could be identified."

Doesn't sound positively reassuring, does it?

Looking into how Google "anonymises" users' web search records reveals  
that its claims are nothing more than a sham, and that it retains  
enough data to track users for years.

When a wibbler uses Google to search the web, it stores their unique  
Internet Protocol (IP) network address, the search words they entered,  
and their unique "cookie" identifier. (A "cookie" is a record sent by  
a website and stored by the user's web browser. The cookie identifies  
it and may retain additional information between a user's visits to  
that website.)

Google's current policy is that it "anonymises" users' IP addresses  
and cookies within its archived logfiles after 18 months have elapsed.

However, Google's method for supposedly "anonymising" users' IP  
addresses is simply to clear the last eight bits of each address,  
according to information it has revealed publicly.

Since an IPv4 network address consists of only four bytes, 32 bits,  
deleting the low-order (rightmost) eight bits doesn't remove much  
information. The address-block belonging to the user's Internet  
Service Provider (ISP) is certainly still identified by the data  
retained.

Google has never said how it supposedly "anonymises" the cookie  
identifiers it retains, so it's at least possible that Google merely  
says it scrubs cookie identifiers, but really doesn't.

Now, Google's clarification of its recent announcement states that it  
will change "some" -- but by implication less than eight -- IP address  
bits that it retains after only nine months. It says that it will  
still strip the last eight bits off the IP addresses it retains after  
18 months.

But Google has not said anything about anonymising the cookie  
identifiers it retains in its logs after nine months have elapsed.

Changing a few bits in users' IP addresses means nothing if Google  
doesn't also clear or non-reversibly encrypt its users' cookie  
identifiers at the same time to render their search records truly  
anonymous.

The cookies Google presents to web browsers reportedly persist for two  
years, and their expiration dates are reportedly updated every time a  
user visits a website run by Google.

What Google plans on doing means that it will still be able to track  
its users' web search histories longer than nine months. And if, as  
one might be forgiven for suspecting, Google never clears users'  
cookie identifiers, then it can track them forever.

Without clearing its users' cookie identifiers, Google's widely  
praised, supposed "reform" of its individually identifying data  
retention practices is meaningless, and no true reform.

The European Commission, other citizen privacy advocates and the  
traditional press that applauded Google's so-called "reform" of its  
data retention and privacy policies ought to withdraw their praise as  
premature and unwarranted, and haul Google in for questions.

"Don't be evil," indeed.




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