A number of issues have been raised with respect to customers’ privacy on the internet once again, as Google was reported to be sharing data of the customers who bought apps from its stores.
A developer recently claimed that he had received the personal information of the customers using his app. The information included the customer’s name, location and email address. By sharing this data, Google has not violated any regulation because its existing policies indicate that the data of the customers buying the apps will be shared with the developers so as to make payments for them easily. However, many experts argue that Google has not been very clear in terms of its policies.
“Google Wallet shares the information necessary to process a transaction, which is clearly spelled out in the Google Wallet privacy notice,” Google said, via the Los Angeles Times.
The important thing to note here is that Google is not standing alone in this. Many internet giants have faced privacy related issues in the past, but the case with Google is slightly different as the company has got supporting voices. Many developers are of the view that Google does the right thing by passing the customers’ information to the developers. The LA Times quoted Barry Schwartz, news editor of the Search Engine Land blog and an app developer, as writing in favour of Google in a blog post:
“They are my customers, not Google’s and not Apple’s customers. They download our products. They call the developer with questions. We provide them the tools and the content. Apple doesn’t tell us who our customers are, and when we need that information to verify ownership or to give refunds, we are left with blindfolds on. Google, in my opinion, does it right by making the user who downloads the app our customer.”
On the other hand, Google has received criticism from some other developers who are of the view that it should be stated in clear terms that the customers’ data would be shared by the developers. Reuters quoted Joel Reidenberg, Director of the Centre on Law and Information Policy at Fordham University School of Law, as saying:
“When you buy an app, you could have a pop-up that tells you this is the information that’s going to the app developer.”
Photo: Macworld
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