Today, January 28th, is variously recognized as the Feast Day of Saint Thomas Aquinas and Saint Julian's Day.  It's Data Privacy Day, too (or Data Protection Day in Europe), and to celebrate this last occasion, Google has published its Privacy Principles.

Google has five Privacy Principles, and does indeed consider them important enough to capitalize the overarching term.  An official explanation stated, "Our Privacy Principles help guide decisions we make at every level of our company, so we can help protect and empower our users while we fulfill our ongoing mission to organize the world's information."

As for the Principles themselves, they are as follows:

2. Develop products that reflect strong privacy standards and practices.

3. Make the collection of personal information transparent.

4. Give users meaningful choices to protect their privacy.

5. Be a responsible steward of the information we hold.

It's important to note that these Principles aren't new; all Google's done is make some longstanding guidelines public.  Still, this is a good PR move, and because it will allow privacy watchdogs to hold Google to a higher standard, could have some real effects.

Also, a post on the Official Google Blog referred to "privacy-enhancing initiatives and features" this morning and promised, "[T]here is more in store for 2010."

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