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Italy court convicts three Google executives of privacy violations

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] An Italian court on Wednesday found three Google executives guilty of privacy violations for allowing a video depicting bullying to be posted on its website. The court in Milan found that the three men, David Carl Drummond, George De Los Reyes, and Peter Fleitcher, violated the privacy rights of a young man with Down's Syndrome when they allowed a video showing his classmates bullying him to remain on the Google Italy website from September to November 2006. All three men were given a suspended sentence, though prosecutors had asked for a one-year imprisonment. A fourth defendant, Arvind Desikan, was found not guilty of privacy invasion, and a defamation claim against all four defendants was dismissed. Google's Deputy General Counsel reacted to the news quickly, with a strongly-worded statement calling the decision an attack on "the very principles of freedom on which the Internet is built," and promising to appeal the ruling. Wednesday's ruling is the latest in a string of privacy-related legal troubles for Google. Last week, an internet privacy group filed a complaint with the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate whether Google's new Buzz service violates privacy laws and Google's own terms of service. Canada's Privacy Commissioner also raised concerns about the privacy protections present in the new social networking service. In January, Google threatened to withdraw its services from China after hackers based in that country accessed e-mail addresses and other information from the accounts of human rights activists in December 2009.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on February 24, 2010 (boomark / email).