The story explains that in a recent speech in Europe, Peter Fleischer, global privacy counsel for Google, called for international rules that are less of a "patchwork" than U.S. laws and less "inflexible" than European laws. Google apparently likes "something closer to the privacy framework developed by the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum."

In the WP story, EPIC's Marc Rotenberg says that

Google, under investigation for violating global privacy standards, is calling for international privacy standards. It's somewhat like someone being caught for speeding saying there should be a public policy to regulate speeding.

While Google, in response to criticism, including a PIRG/CDD/EPIC complaint and supplemental filing to the FTC protesting its proposed merger with online ad giant Doubleclick, has made some changes to its uses and retention of personal information, more needs to be done.

Our colleague and Canadian privacy expert Philippa Lawson says (although not in the Washington Post), "It's no surprise that Google has jumped on these principles. They may be a good first step for China, but that's about it." We agree. China's got privacy problems, as well as dangerous toy and food problems. Lawson is leading a Canadian challenge to the Google/DoubleClick merger. She directs the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic of the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law. My previous blog on Google/privacy issues.