Google will be subjected to independent privacy audits for the next 20 years over charges that it "violated its own privacy promises".
The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said that the search giant wrongly used information from Google Mail users last year to create its social network Buzz.
The FTC ruled that "the options for declining or leaving the social network were ineffective".
"Google Buzz fell short of our usual standards," Google said in a blog post.
"While we worked quickly to make improvements, regulators unsurprisingly wanted more detail about what went wrong and how we could prevent it from happening again.
"Today, we’ve reached an agreement with the FTC to address their concerns."
That agreement will require Google to undergo a privacy review once every two years for the next 20 years.
via BBC News – Google to be audited on privacy after Buzz complaints. Google having it’s privacy policies reviewed for the next 20 years is going to be rough on a company who wants to organize the world’s information.