Privacy Digest

Google Hires Gonzales' Privacy Lawyer: Google'added the Justice Department's chief privacy officer Jane Horvath'to its growing stable of privacy lawyers'in September 2007, a hire that comes as'regulators are increasingly scrutinizing'Google's massive data banks.

Horvath joins Google a little more than a year and a half after then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales appointed her as the first ever DOJ privacy officer in February 2006 .

Horvath'spoke publicly Thursday and Friday on Google's behalf in a town hall put together by'the Federal Trade Commission, which'is debating whether to put limits on Google's proposed acquisition of online advertising giant DoubleClick, a purchase consumer advocates say would allow Google to dominate the online ad industry and collect even more data on net users.

Google says it's not hiring Horvath for juice with the FTC, however.

Ms. Horvath 'has not been directly involved in any discussions with the FTC regarding the DoubleClick acquisition' and 'has not participated in any meetings that would conflict with her post-governmental ethical obligations,' a Google spokeswoman told THREAT LEVEL via email.

During'Horvath's time at'Justice, Inspector General Glenn Fine revealed that FBI agents became extraordinarily sloppy with a Patriot Act power known as a National Security Letter, and that one rogue office'sent hundreds of false, sworn emergency requests to telephone companies for the phone records of customers and for data-mined reports on who they called. That office had no authority to send even legit subpoenas.

After that report, Horvath helped write the Justice Department's face-saving new regulations about how such self-issued subpoenas should be handled in the future.

Horvath frequently promised at'privacy conferences that she'had an open door policy, but she was last seen around THREAT LEVEL ignoring an email asking if her office was'investigating'the fake 'exigent letters.' Nor would she tell THREAT LEVEL'if'citizens could see or contest the records stored in the FBI's massive Investigative Data Warehouse.

Horvath is now working for Google in Washington, D.C., where she will 'work with cross-functional teams to advance Google's privacy principles and culture of respect for privacy by guiding the development of technologies that enhance user privacy and ensuring compliance with privacy laws around the world,' according to a Google spokesperson.

Horvath knows her stuff, according to privacy experts familiar with her Justice Department tenure.

EPIC director Marc Rotenberg, who is no easy mark, called her a 'key person' at the Justice Department who did a 'pretty good job' getting privacy groups into key meetings.

Other privacy officials declined to speak for the record about Horvath, but suggested that her publicly unremarkable tenure at DOJ was about as much as could be expected from someone working in an ultra-secretive Justice Department.

One did suggest, however, that the only honorable thing for a privacy officer to do in Gonzales-led department was to resign.

'Photo: DHS chief privacy officer Hugo Teufel and then-DOJ chief privacy officer Jane Horvath meeting with E.U. officials in 2007 to work on passenger data sharing agreements.

See Also:

• Instead of Adding Privacy, Google Lets You Watch Privacy Videos on Youtube
• Google-DoubleClick Privacy Fight Hangs Over Fed's E-Advertising Forum
• Privacy Groups Call For Do-Not-Track-Me List to Rein In Online Advertisers
• Google Changes Cookie Policy But Privacy Effect is Small
• Google Trying to Appease Regulators and Fight Privacy Groups, Says Ads are Info
• Ask To Allow Users to Control Data Retention

(Read Original Article - Via Threat Level.)