Google is threatening to shut down its free email service in Germany in protest at a new law that would require it to store data about individual users.
Legislation drafted by Germany's Federal Ministry of Justice is being considered by the German Parliament.
It would require ISPs and email providers to collect and store information on users' mailing and internet habits and to do so in such a way as to identify individual web users.
Peter Fleischer, global privacy counsel at Google, told German economics magazine Wirtschaftswoche that the move would be "a severe blow to privacy".
"If need be we will simply switch off Google Mail in Germany. If the web community can no longer trust us to handle their data with care, we will fairly quickly cease to be a going concern."
Fleischer added that the law would be useless anyway, since users would just switch to email accounts run overseas.
Germany faces Google Mail shutdown
By
Iain Thomson
on
Jun 26, 2007 1:45PM
Search giant objects to proposed data retention legislation.
Got a news tip for our journalists? Share it with us anonymously here.
Partner Content
Promoted Content
How to turn digital complexity into competitive advantage
Promoted Content
Why Genworth Australia embraced low-code software development
.png&h=183&w=300&c=1&s=0)
Promoted Content
Accenture and Google Cloud team up to create a loveable, Australian-first, renewable energy product
Partner Content
"We're seeing some good policy put in place, but that's the exception"
Sponsored Whitepapers
Extracting the value of data using Unified Observability
Planning before the breach: You can’t protect what you can’t see
Beyond FTP: Securing and Managing File Transfers
NextGen Security Operations: A Roadmap for the Future
Video: Watch Juniper talk about its Aston Martin partnership
.jpg&h=146&w=240&c=1&s=0)
