New film goes in search of Google's first privacy policy

Cullen Hoback on the shoot for "Terms and Conditions May Apply."

(Credit: Cullen Hoback)

Anyone interested in how Google's privacy policies over the years can easily compare previous versions, thanks to an archive the company has set up online. But one of the earliest privacy policies is nowhere to be found -- and it's a shame, filmmaker Cullen Hoback says, because it's a policy that put users' privacy first.

"A cookie can tell us, 'This is the same computer that visited Google two days ago,' but it cannot tell us, 'This person is Joe Smith' or even, 'This person lives in the United States,'" reads the policy, published in the year 2000, which can be found at the Wayback Machine.

Today, of course, Google makes a point of knowing whether users are in the United States. And initiatives like Google+ and Search Plus Your World are designed to give Google information like "This person is Joe Smith." That information helps Google deliver better results and services to its customers -- but, Hoback argues, by chipping away at users' anonymity online, it exposes them to a variety of ... [Read more]