Search giant Google opens a new centre in Germany to improve data privacy
Last week, Google opened a new privacy focused engineering centre in Munich, Germany, in a move to improve its data protection credentials. CEO Sundar Pichai said Google is expanding its operations in the southern German city, including doubling the number of data privacy engineers there to more than 200 by the end of 2019.
Big tech companies’ face increasing criticism of their data collection practices.
The new Google Safety Engineering Centre will make Munich a global hub for the company’s “cross-product privacy engineering efforts,” Pichai said in a blog post. Staff will work with Google privacy specialists in other cities to build products for use around the world, Pichai said, adding that Munich engineers built the Google Account control panel as well as privacy and security features for the Chrome browser.
Data privacy and security at Google and its tech rivals including Facebook are increasingly in the spotlight. Both companies dedicated much of their annual developer conferences last week to privacy, with Google unveiling new tools giving people more control over how they’re being tracked while Facebook outlined plans to connect people though more private channels. Sources and credits: Seatle Times
