Google has finally decided to comply with EU requests and promised to keep users’ data for no more than 18 months. This comes out in the same days as the results of a privacy ranking of Internet Service Companies compiled by Privacy International, a UK based human rights group. No wonder, Google ranked at the bottom.

It is true that I am worried about the accumulation of information in Google’s hands (especially after their acquisition of the "banner ads giant" Doubleclick, creating an enormous advertising know-how and power). But I still have some resistance in seeing Google as "the new villain" in the corporate world.

Some weeks ago, in a brilliant lesson (Libertà e Internet, at the Internet Society meeting in Milan – it is almost an hour long, but worth the view), Stefano Rodotà pointed out that we are in dramatic need of regulations on the Internet: this is not due to a desire to limit freedom or impose bureaucratic rules. On the contrary, the objective is to preserve the degree of liberty we got used to, in this case by granting the "right to oblivion". Google’s move is a step in this direction.

Looking for more, I went back to the Privacy International website and found that, for a change, there is an international ranking where Italy is not at the bottom and performs better than the majority of EU Countries. Better than the United Kingdom, which has the worst record in the EU (mainly due to its extensive surveillance system, I guess). As pointed out by Rodotà, this is sadly ironic, being England the place where Orwell has given birth to such a great prophecy and warning as his 1984 was.