Google has announced an upcoming (3 Oct 2010) update to their privacy policy. http://www.google.com/intl/en/privacy.html

They have also listed five "privacy principles". http://www.google.com/intl/en/corporate/privacy_principles.html

1. Use information to provide our users with valuable products and services.

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.

"3. Make the collection of personal information transparent."
Links on results pages are redirected through Google so they can be monitored. Is that transparent to all users?

"4. Give users meaningful choices to protect their privacy."
Do they mean Scroogle?

Let's not forget Charles Foster Kane's "Declaration of Principles".

1. "I'll provide the people of this city with a daily paper that will tell all the news honestly."

2. "I will also provide them with a fighting and tireless champion of their rights as citizens and as human beings."

GeorgeR: that's a good point about the links on the results pages. Most users would (reasonably) assume that clicking a link will go to the URL that displays in the browser footer.

As for meaningful choices to protect their privacy, I wouldn't look to Google for this. You don't trust the fox to look after the henhouse. Probably the best way to approach this is for the browser software to not disclose the information in the first place.

That would solve the sneaky redirect of the links on the results page. The browser would notice this, and prompt you with a message like "Hey, this link isn't going to the page you think it's going to. Do you still want to go there?".

Corporations draw up their privacy policies to satisfy the prevailing political mood. They don't draw them up to maximise the advantage of the end user. (Unlike the declaration of Charles Foster Kane, which was clearly targeted at the citizen.)