Inside Google

Google faces questions from Congress; session should be public

John M. Simpson

Google is facing more questions from Congress. The Internet giant’s deliberate circumventing of privacy settings in Apple’s Safari browser — that’s the one used on iPhones and iPads — is prompting the outrage. The deliberate privacy breach was discovered by Stanford University researcher Jonathan Mayer and reported first by The Wall Street Journal.

Press Release

Google’s Motorola Deal OK’d, But Regulators Vow to Monitor Patents

CONTACT: John M. Simpson

Regulators on both sides of the Atlantic have cleared Google’s $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility, but are vowing to keep a close eye on the Internet giant’s behavior after the deal goes through.

EPIC Files Suit To Block Google’s New Data Policy

John M. Simpson

Our friends at the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) went to court Wednesday to block Google from combining data gathered from its various services without users’ consent.

Press Release

FTC Will Probe Google’s Search Update

CONTACT: John M. Simpson

Google’s latest change to its search engine, dubbed “Search plus Your World” apparently has drawn the scrutiny of the Federal Trade Commission because of antitrust concerns, according to Bloomberg News.

Press Release

Senators Call for Google Antitrust Probe

CONTACT: John M. Simpson

The top Senators on the Judiciary Committee’s Antitrust Subcommittee are expressing concern to the Federal Trade Commission over Google’s business practices and the Internet giant’s impact on competition in Internet search and commerce.

Google’s Sad LA Saga Draws To A Close

John M. Simpson

Google’s sad saga of missed deadlines and unfulfilled promises in attempting to provide the City of Los Angeles with a “cloud” based email and collaboration system appears to be drawing to a close.

Press Release

You can read ‘CQ Researcher’ in-depth report on Google’s dominance

CONTACT: John M. Simpson

The Prestigious CQ Researcher has recently tackled the issue of Google’s dominance, asking the question: “Is the online-search giant too powerful?” See below for information about how you can read the entire online version of this important study. In a half-page opinion piece in the 24-page report, I square off with Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt […]

Pushing for online privacy on the East and West Coasts

John M. Simpson

The week began for me at meetings in the heart of geekdom in Silicon Valley and concluded with consumer and privacy advocates meeting in New York City.  The two sessions are more related than you might first think. The New York meetings, convened by the Consumer Federation of America, were an off-the-record session for consumer […]

Google faces IRS scrutiny for avoiding taxes

John M. Simpson

Remember the “Double Irish” and the “Dutch Sandwich?” Those are the nicknames for the schemes that Google uses to dodge about $1 billion a year in U.S. taxes by running profits through offshore subsidiaries and stashing the cash in tax havens like Bermuda. Bloomberg Reporter Jesse Drucker originally revealed a year ago how the dubious […]

Press Release

Google’s Monopoly Power Raises More Concerns

CONTACT: John M. Simpson

More examples of Google’s powerful grip on the Internet surfaced this week and its acquisition of the venerable restaurant reviewer, Zagat, raised new concern about how the Internet giant will use its monopoly power in the future. Being a monopoly is not in itself illegal. If you developed the position naturally without breaking any laws, […]