Google will chat this week with other tech companies about privacy issues

There’s no doubt that online privacy has been a huge topic in the tech community over the past several months. From the Cambridge Audio Analytica scandal that hit Facebook, to the launch of Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), there are many who feel tech companies need to do more to protect the data they gather from ordinary citizens.

Now it appears those same tech businesses and groups may be trying harder to come up with better online privacy policies and features. Axios reports that a Washington, D.C.-based trade group called the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI) will hold a meeting in San Francisco on Wednesday that will focus on those issues.

ITI’s members include Google, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, Qualcomm, and Samsung. There’s no word on which specific ITI members will actually send representatives to the Wednesday meeting, but it’s likely Google will have team members in attendance. Dean Garfield, the ITI’s CEO and president, told Axios that while tech companies have always considered privacy to be “a foundational principle,” he added that there is now a more urgent need to “talk about it in a way that resonates.”

While all that sounds good, this meeting is likely just the first step towards generating an overall consensus about online privacy in the tech industry. Google has already made some changes to its privacy policy, thanks in part to GDPR, to make them easier to understand.