Google's global privacy counsel will appear in Italian court

Privacy professional facing criminal charges

Google's global privacy counsel will appear in Italian court this week on criminal charges of defamation and failure to exercise control over personal data. The charges follow a two-year investigation by Italian authorities into footage uploaded onto Google Video that showed a disabled teen being disparaged by peers. Google's Paris-based Global Privacy Counsel Peter Fleischer and three other executives charged in the case will appear before the Criminal Court of Milan on February 3. The charges carry a maximum sentence of 36 months.

It is believed to be the first criminal sanction ever pursued against a privacy professional for his company's actions.

The video that sparked the investigation was captured in a Turin classroom. Four high school boys were recorded taunting of a young man with Down syndrome, ultimately hitting the 17-year-old with a tissue box. One of the boys uploaded the footage to Google Video's Italian site on September 8, 2006.

According to Google, more than 200,000 videos are uploaded to Google Video each day. Under EU legislation incorporated into Italian law in 2003, Internet service providers are not responsible for monitoring third-party content on their sites, but are required to remove content considered offensive if they receive a complaint about it. Between November 6 and 7, 2006, Google received two separate requests for the removal of the video-one from a user, and one from the Italian Interior Ministry, the authority responsible for investigating Internet-related crimes. Google removed the video on November 7, 2006, within 24 hours of receiving the requests.

Nonetheless, Milan public prosecutor Francesco Cajani decided that by allowing the 191 second clip onto its site, Google executives were in breach of Italian penal code.

Peter Fleischer was on his way into the University of Milan for a speaking engagement January 23, 2008 when five law enforcement officials with summonses surrounded him. According to Fleischer, the officers had been waiting for him, but ultimately allowed him to deliver his talk before taking him to a deposition before the public prosecutor.

Cajani is prosecuting Google as an Internet content provider. Unlike Internet service providers, Italian penal code states that Internet content providers are responsible for the third-party content posted to their sites. This is essentially the same law regulating newspaper and television publishers.

But the Internet is a different medium, says Google. "We cannot agree with the concept that a tool can be blamed for the use that is made of it," a company spokesperson said.

Rocco Panetta, former lawyer for the Italian data protection commission, questions the authorities' decision to prosecute Google executives. "It seems to me that the public prosecutors in Milan almost did not take into significant consideration legislation currently in force by means of which the position of an ISP is different from that of an Internet content provider."

The legal proceedings are expected to continue for months. Marco Pancini, public policy counsel for Google Italia, says the company has been in "full compliance with Italian laws and international proceedings," adding that Google's cooperation in the investigation thus far helped lead authorities to those responsible for the video. The youths have already been prosecuted for their actions.

"We are confident the process will end in our favor," Pancini said.