Chris Hoofnagle, senior counsel at influential lobbyist group the Electronic Privacy Information Center (Epic) said that protecting personal information is going to become increasingly difficult as Google expands its search and email operations.
"This is a lot of personal information in one basket," said Hoofnagle in an interview with Associated Press. "Google is becoming one of the largest privacy risks on the internet."
Hoofnagle was keen not to criticise Google's security policy but suggested that due to the fact it harvests far more information than perhaps any other single organisation, it will become a major target for criminals.
"Clearly anybody using Google needs to be aware of its policies," said Graham Titterington, principal analyst at analyst company Ovum. "For example, people assume email is more secure than it actually is. You should think about what data you want to go to Google and what to keep."
Titterington suggested that anyone concerned after reading Google's policies should opt for a paid, more private, service instead. In May SC reported Google refuted rumors it was hacked following a 15-minute downtime.
.png&h=140&w=231&c=1&s=0)
_(1).jpg&h=140&w=231&c=1&s=0)
