Cost of privacy compliance might be behind Google Reader's demise

Google Reader’s impending demise has caused quite a stir on the Internet in the past couple of weeks. The RSS aggregation service has been, after all, very popular ever since it started. Google said the reason for shutting Reader down was a fall in the number of users, but it looks like the cost of ensuring privacy might also have had a role in the service's demise. A source told AllThingsD that part of the reason for Reader being shutting down was Google's reluctance to invest in the staff and infrastructure needed to deal with compliance and privacy issues. Google is keen on working its system out so that it does not get into trouble around compliance issues, especially where privacy is concerned. This essentially means the search giant needs to have teams of specialists, including lawyers and policy experts dedicated to these issues. The service reportedly did not even have a dedicated product manager or a full-time engineer to handle it when its death sentence was pronounced. Google did not want to invest into additional infrastructure, said the source.

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