Google takes sole stand on privacy, rejects new rules for fear of 'authoritarian' review

guest · Sep 25, 2019

Google takes sole stand on privacy, rejects new rules for fear of 'authoritarian' review
Lone 'no' vote nixes renewal of W3C's Privacy Interest Group
September 25, 2019
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/09/25/google_privacy_wc3/

Google has blocked a proposed revision of the charter of the Privacy Interest Group (PING), a part of the W3C web standards body, over concerns that establishing an unchecked "authoritarian review group" will create "significant unnecessary chaos in the development of the web platform."

The PING's job is to ensure that technical specifications recommended by the W3C respect the privacy of people using the web. The group does so by providing a "horizontal review," in which members make suggestions to the authors of technical specifications to ensure the web tech being developed takes privacy into account.

"To be clear: Google does NOT have concerns about the PING reviewing web platform specifications," he said. "...We do have slight concerns about the additional workload that might entail for the PING group, but we have been actively working to increase our participation in the PING to help account for that."
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As The Register has heard, the issue for Google is that more individuals are participating in PING and there's been some recent pushback against work in which Google has been involved. In other words, a formerly cordial group has become adversarial.

"The strategic problem for Google, with Apple, Brave, Mozilla, Samsung all blocking tracking, is how to preserve their business advantages and share price while appearing to be 'pro privacy,'" said Brendan Eich, CEO of Brave, in a message to The Register.
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Google takes sole stand on privacy, rejects new rules for fear of 'authoritarian' review

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