Asian countries more open to data-driven innovation than Europe, Google's privacy chief says

Too many rules are hampering the development of internet services in Europe, whereas many Asian countries are more open to change, especially in the realm of data-driven innovation, according to a top Google executive.

In fact, this field will play a critical role in the economic development of the Asia-Pacific region for years to come, Peter Fleischer, Google’s global privacy counsel, told the South China Morning Post.

“I will say Asia Pacific – and the US too – is more open to data-driven innovation than Europe,” said the search engine’s point man for global privacy issues. He arrived in Hong Kong this week to attend several internet policy conferences. 

On the issue of data protection, he said more time would be required before the European model could be fairly judged in terms of whether it had found the correct balance when it comes to respecting users’ privacy. 

The so-called “right to be forgotten” gives users the freedom to potentially have their information removed from the internet. 

The practice has been upheld in Europe for about a decade but was not strongly enforced until last year, and even then mainly in EU countries.