"While we're always looking to extend our products and services to users worldwide, in the case of Google Health there are very different rules and regulations concerning privacy and the ways personal health data and electronic medical records are stored in countries outside of the US. This will not be a hasty process," the representative says.

Google has brought a lot of creativity into the world and a number of useful applications, Sbarcea says, "but we need to ask some very serious questions on its privacy practices.

"This is going to be the tension, the struggle of the future. How do we keep our information free, fluid and emergent and at the same time allow Facebook and Google to use this content in some capacity without us compromising our rights to the content."

When Facebook changed its terms of service recently to allow itself to use individuals' posted content even after they had deleted their accounts, there was a storm of protest. The objectors joined together and created a Facebook group called "Facebook Bill of Rights and Responsibilities". This is a new and positive development, says Sbarcea; the objectors have not just registered their annoyance, but indicated their interest in having a dialogue with the company.

There is a disturbing degree of credulity towards results found through Google, she says. Its news aggregator, Google News, last year propagated an undated story that caused some mainstream media to report a bankruptcy arrangement at United Airlines as recent, when it was actually six years ago and had long been discharged. The company's shares were seriously affected.