Sanfrancisco Sightseeing Shuttle Tours

San Francisco officials have already selected a proposal from Google and EarthLink to provide a wireless network throughout the city, which doesn't mean they can't ask for caveats during negotiations on the details. City officials say they would ask the companies to give people a choice of whether they want to share personal information or may be not, according to an IDG News Service article on Monday.

"In negotiations with the companies, expected to begin soon, the city will seek an 'opt-in' system for users to share personal information, notification of users when there are legal requests for their information and a promise from the operators on how long they will keep user data they collect, said Brian Roberts, a senior policy analyst for the city's Policy, scheduling and Compliance Division. He spoke at the latest hearing by the Local Agency Formation Committee, a utilities oversight body for the combined city and county of San Francisco," the article said.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation and other solitude advocates have complained about the lack of privacy protections in the Google-EarthLink proposal.

Google representatives were not obtainable to comment late on Monday.

Meanwhile, San Francisco is studying the option of finally offering broadband over fiber to every home, according to the article.