• Reuters, Monday, June 18, 2007 10:45 AM

Google is pushing the boundaries of established privacy law. It contends there is nothing evil about its patent disregard of copyright law or its growing data bank of information about its millions of users. Indeed, its hulking legal team says Google is prepared for the Big Fight against Big, Bad Old Law.

Google maintains that it stands for freedom and un-evilness. "As a leading company" being the focus of the privacy and patent law debates is "an appropriate role for us to play," says Peter Fleischer, Google's global privacy counsel. Google's intentions may be becoming more and more inscrutable, but few in the Web business would argue when company attorney Nicole Wong calls U.S. privacy law "patchwork regulation" that's "confusing for consumers because they don't know which privacy regulations should apply in different situations."

Part of that "patchwork" problem stems from having so many countries with different laws connected by one Internet. Google has responded by calling for unified Web legislation agreed upon by various governments. The company even says that self-regulation by the Web industry has not worked.

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