Google to Push Privacy Initiatives in the U.S.

Google is working with other companies to push consumer privacy legislation in the U.S. Congress. The search giant also will work with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to fine-tune online advertising principles the agency proposed in December, the company's top privacy executives said Wednesday.

In addition, Google is reaching out to privacy advocates in an effort to allay concerns about its acquisition of online advertising vendor DoubleClick, company officials said.

Privacy is of such concern for Google that it embeds privacy lawyers with product teams, Nicole Wong, Google's deputy general counsel, told reporters in Washington, D.C. Google, in its own products and in policy discussions, has focused on three privacy principles: transparency of privacy policies, security of data and user choice, and control over how data is used, she said.

"People don't like binary choices about how to use data," Wong said. "They want to be [online] on their own terms."