More than two dozen authors and publishers have filed an objection to a proposed settlement that would allow Google Inc. to digitize and sell millions of books, saying that the agreement ignores important privacy rights of readers and writers.

Without stronger privacy safeguards, Google employees, third parties or the U.S. government could obtain lists of the books people have purchased and read, the authors and publishers said in a court filing.

The settlement has no limitations on Google's collection and use of reader information and no privacy standards for data retention, deletion and sharing of that data with third parties, said the court document filed today by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups.

More: http://computerworld.com/s/article/9137706/