Privacy is one of our society’s most crucial social constructs. The history of privacy is largely responsible for the freedom to think, to formulate free speech and to challenge artificial social barriers across society. Time and time again, those generations that enjoyed strong privacy protections have been free to make the world a better and more inclusive place for all who follow.
I’m not sure the legendary Bob Dylan could have written “Masters of War” if he were writing under the scrutiny of the authorities. And this is important because privacy fuels the art that inspires us and governs how we shape our world. As time has repeatedly demonstrated, privacy is the only authentic safeguard for what makes being human worth being human.
This is why Google CEO Sundar Pichai has made privacy our company’s most important priority. “Privacy is #1” is not corporate marketing rhetoric, nor is it some pre-emptive compliance strategy. It’s a reflection of our belief that privacy is essential to a free and open web, and central to building products that are helpful for everyone.
Since Google’s founding in 1998, the nature of data, human expectations and considerations of personal privacy have all changed — dramatically.
Some of those changes are counterintuitive. Many people, for example, feel that their privacy is more secure if they ask an embarrassing question of Google’s search box rather than asking the same question of a neighbor. If you are reading this on a plane or even in your living room, the person sitting next to you is more likely to search for answers about their health than to lean over and ask you.
That speaks to the major shift in notions of privacy over the last 20 years, and it has sweeping social implications. The private, direct relationship between individuals and information is one of the biggest transformations for our species in over 500 years.
This is especially true for people who have never previously enjoyed privacy or its benefits. In many countries, families share devices and women aren’t able to conduct private searches about their health. In an emerging market like India, for example, 29% of adult women only obtain internet access through a shared mobile device, and we find a much higher use of features like Incognito mode as a result.
While some speak reflexively of “the death of privacy” in the digital age, in ways we seldom consider privacy has not only evolved, it has empowered people in new ways.
This is why Google has always depended upon a bond of understanding with our users. Namely: Your data is your data. We will never sell it to a third party. Each of our products is designed with an emphasis on privacy and security, including easy user interfaces and features like Privacy Check-Ups, which allow people to control their data and keep their accounts safe and secure. As technology evolves, we are investing more than any other company in privacy.
This year, we’ve announced a number of additional privacy and security tools across our products and platforms: easy data management, Incognito mode for Maps, auto-deletion of search history, and upgrades to our Advanced Protection Program. But the more deeply we progress into this digital age, the more that innovation must go beyond building better user interfaces.
For example, we have developed tools such as federated learning and differential privacy that preserve functionality while dramatically reducing the amount of data collected, used, and stored. Federated learning is machine learning that makes products more helpful while confining data to your device (instead of performing analysis on our servers). This— coupled with double-blind encryption, where data is encrypted locally before being sent to the service provider — allows us to do more with less data. Today, we are putting the same level of work into privacy as we are in our flagship Search product.
On the regulatory front, we’ve probably invested more than any other company in living up to the standards set by the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
While much of the focus on privacy relates to individual user data, the evolution of the open web means there are also new needs at the enterprise level for professionals who are conducting research for customers. For example, when you’re searching for information about a health condition, you might prefer that inquiries not show up in your search history — now there are several ways to control that data and even more tools under development to ensure that your privacy and that of your client is protected.
We believe that privacy is for everyone, not just those who can afford it, and that a free and open web must reflect our society’s increasing commitment to privacy. Doing so will protect people and help technology to remain a potent force for individual empowerment in the digital century.
To download a full copy of the 2020 Relevance Report, click here.