Parents who worry about the challenges their teenagers and young children face on the Internet should pay close attention to a congressional hearing today on Internet privacy. Computers and smart phones have provided us, and our children, with tremendous benefits and opportunities, but with that comes great challenges and worries about our privacy and our children’s safety. The amount of information that is being collected and the information available online about all of us is extremely troubling. The actions of Google, for example, which is nearly impossible to avoid when using the Internet or your smart phone, demonstrate the severity of this issue. Recently, 36 state attorneys general – Democrat and Republican – challenged Google’s new privacy policy, which would align data collected across its services to develop highly personal profiles of Internet users. Their new privacy policy gives consumers no opportunity to opt out and is a potential treasure trove for Internet predators and scam artists.

Google’s long history of having little concern for consumer privacy gives no comfort to consumers and families worried about the protection of their data. Over the last few years, there have been a number of disturbing incidents by Google. Just to mention a few: Google attempted to obtain partial social security numbers for children in an online Doodle for Google contest; they had to settle with state attorneys general for illegally collecting data from wireless networks with its Google Street View; settled with the FTC for deceptive privacy practices with Google Buzz and just recently were caught circumventing the privacy policy of Apple’s Safari web browser using a hack to collect information on the Internet usage of users without their knowledge. The Google Street View product itself has raised alarms among child safety groups and families worried about predators having instant online access to see children playing outside by themselves or scope out victims at other vulnerable times.

It’s great to see Congress and the federal, state and local governments taking steps to look more seriously at how our laws and policies can protect our online privacy and our children’s safety. The recent privacy framework from the FTC was an important step and today’s hearing will bring additional attention to this important issue. More, however, needs to be done and we need to see additional scrutiny of the leading companies that families are entrusting with their information, their personal searches and access to their children’s information.

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