International markets made up $3.5 billion, or 52% of Google’s revenue, in the last calendar quarter of 2009. However, their international presence is not without its detractors. According to BusinessWeek.com:
The European Union said it is examining complaints from companies that accuse Google of demoting links to their sites in search results. The same day, a court in Italy found Google managers and a former employee of the Mountain View (Calif.)-based company responsible for privacy violations caused by a user-submitted video on YouTube. The flare-ups in Europe come just six weeks after Google threatened to shutter some Chinese operations after a cyber attack on its users was linked to the country.
Google is consistently under fire in Germany; China and the US based search giant had a knock down drag out over an hacking incident, and Google fights for a foothold in lesser countries. In Italy, display of a child with Downs Syndrome led to the trial and conviction in absentia of three Google execs – a matter that Google addressed on the Google blog:
… we are deeply troubled by this conviction for another equally important reason. It attacks the very principles of freedom on which the Internet is built. Common sense dictates that only the person who films and uploads a video to a hosting platform could take the steps necessary to protect the privacy and obtain the consent of the people they are filming. European Union law was drafted specifically to give hosting providers a safe harbor from liability so long as they remove illegal content once they are notified of its existence. The belief, rightly in our opinion, was that a notice and take down regime of this kind would help creativity flourish and support free speech while protecting personal privacy. If that principle is swept aside and sites like Blogger, YouTube and indeed every social network and any community bulletin board, are held responsible for vetting every single piece of content that is uploaded to them — every piece of text, every photo, every file, every video — then the Web as we know it will cease to exist, and many of the economic, social, political and technological benefits it brings could disappear.
The EU wants Google to delete unblurred Street View images from its database after 6 months instead of 12 – Google demurred:
“The need to retain the unblurred images is legitimate and justified — to ensure the quality and accuracy of our maps, to improve our ability to rectify mistakes in blurring, as well as to use the data we have collected to build better maps products for our users,” Peter Fleischer, a Google lawyer in charge of privacy issues, said in an e-mailed statement. “We have publicly committed to a retention period of 12 months from the date on which images are published on Street View, and this is the period which we will continue to meet globally.”
Overall, Google keeps making European countries mad – but it doesn’t seem to affect their bottom line.
Tags: China, EU Germany, Google, Italy, Streetview