Google Criminal Conviction

An Italian court has convicted several employees of Google for criminal violation of Italian privacy laws, as reported on the Google Public Policy Blog.

I have been highly critical of Google’s privacy policy on this blog. However, that court decision is clearly wrong. Under Article 14 of the 2000 Directive on Electronic Commerce, providers of information society services are not liable for content uploaded by their users, as long as they remove illegal content expeditiously upon getting aware of it.

The video file in question was removed within hours after the notification by Italian police. Requiring more from service providers like Google would mean an obligation to monitor user content, which is excluded by Article 15 of the Electronic Commerce Directive.

Damn. That Italian court is so wrong even I need to come out on Google’s side in this case.