Google Uni deal raises privacy fear

A contract between Google and the University of Michigan released publicly on Friday contains no provisions for protecting the privacy of people who will eventually be able to search the school's vast library collection over the internet.

Google announced plans late last year to digitise and index as many as seven million volumes of material from the University of Michigan to make them searchable on the internet as part of its Google Print service, a searchable index of books. Google also has agreements with Harvard, Oxford, the New York Public Library and Stanford, where Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page began their search work before launching their company in 1998.

While the library projects have prompted copyright concerns from university groups and publishers, privacy issues are the latest wrinkle in Google's plans to expand the universe of web-searchable data.

Daniel Brandt, founder of the Google-watch.org website, which is highly critical of the search company's policies, said: "I would have hoped that the University of Michigan would be sensitive to the fact that Google tracks everything that everyone searches."

A Google spokesman was not available to respond directly to that comment late on Friday but said earlier that Google Print does not require users to share any personally identifiable information.

But even if that service doesn't currently link personally identifiable data with searches and other activity or closely track individual user activity, that doesn't preclude them from doing so in the future, particularly if the US government requires it, the spokesman said.

The privacy policy on Google's website says: "If you have an account, we may share the information submitted under your account among all of our services in order to provide you with a seamless experience and to improve the quality of our services."

Google-watch.org's Brandt and internet privacy expert Richard Smith said the problem lies in Google's use of cookies - tiny tracking tags used by most websites to link a specific user with his or her activity online. Used to automatically fill in passwords and logins and provide geographically specific information, cookies improve services for customers, Google says. Smith, who runs the computerbytesman.com website, said: "Because of cookie tracking at Google, what's being done with that information is a question."

The University of Michigan was not bothered. James Hilton, University of Michigan's interim librarian, said: "We are always concerned about protecting our users' privacy and privacy in general but we have no particular concern with Google or other search engines in a networked world."

The American Library Association code of ethics recommends that libraries preserve the privacy and confidentiality of library users and recommends they ask third-party partners to retain the same degree of protection, said Deborah Caldwell-Stone, deputy director for the ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom. "Access should be anonymous," she said.

If users must be linked with the activity, the record of that connection should be disposed of as soon as it is no longer needed, Caldwell-Stone said.

Privacy issues related to Google's library projects are likely to be discussed at the ALA annual meeting next week, she said.

Under its agreement with the University of Michigan, another alma mater for Google founder Page, Google users will be able to search books and journals as part of their general internet searches for free. Only samples of copyrighted material will be available, while users will be able to view every page of material whose copyright has expired.

Google rivals are also looking to expand their search universe. Yahoo! recently announced that it is testing a service to allow people to search certain subscription-based websites simultaneously. Google and Yahoo! will be indexing materials provided by library supplier Thomson Gale. Microsoft's search engine feeds answers from its Encarta encyclopedia, and Amazon allows people to search inside books before buying.

Elinor Mills writes for CNET News.com