Europe Debates Whether IP Addresses Are Personal Information

[mandy]

European approval of Google's US$3.1 billion acquisition of DoubleClick may be in doubt as privacy hearings held by the European Commission get underway. The hearings are focusing on whether Internet protocol, or IP, addresses should be considered personally identifiable information (PII)...

Google is fighting the idea of categorizing IP addresses as PIIs throughout Europe. Besides the risk of putting the kibosh on Google's hard-fought DoubleClick deal, such a move would effectively set a higher standard of protection. It could hinder Google's constant tinkering with search engine algorithms, and might also hurt its advertising platform, as it would be harder to prove to advertisers that real people were clicking on their ads.

For instance, if the EC were to prohibit the recording of IP addresses -- or some portion of an IP address, in Google's case -- then Google's geography-specific search results would be constrained...

full article: http://ecommercetimes.com/story/Ground-S...61325.html