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Google Stays Mum On EHR Privacy Provisions Of Stimulus Bill
Consumer Watchdog, a Washington D.C.-based consumer advocacy group,
said the additions were a victory for patient privacy rights activists. "Google and Microsoft and medical records companies are now accountable
in the way HIPAA providers are," Jamie Court, president of Consumer
Watchdog told The Industry Standard. "Heretofore these guys had no
accountability."
Google Tries To Kibosh Funding Of Critic
25. February 2009
This week, it came to light that Google attempted to persuade a
foundation to stop funding Consumer Watchdog, Santa Monica, Calif.-based non-profit that
criticized the search giant for its privacy stance.
Well, That Wasn’t Very Googly
24. February 2009
Bob Boorstin, the director of Corporate and Policy Communications for Google, sent
a letter to the Rose Foundation blasting Consumer Watchdog, and, er,
asking that Rose defund them.
Google Watchdog Battle Heats Up
24. February 2009
Consumer Watchdog President Jamie Court wrote to Google CEO Eric
Schmidt Monday arguing that his top executives must "have more
important priorities than defunding a consumer group critical of your
lack of privacy protections." In the letter, he laid out some
observations about Google’s perceived "less than open corporate
culture, its opaque public policymaking division and some suggestions
for change and moving forward."
Privacy Watchdog Suffers Google’s Ire
23. February 2009
Search Giant Tries To Pull Consumer Watchdog’s Funding
The U.S. privacy and consumer protection group Consumer Watchdog today shot back at Google for allegedly trying to have its funding withdrawn.
Google Rates Its Own Washington Watchdog
23. February 2009
Since winning the grant last August, Consumer Watchdog has challenged Google
privacy practices related to its Gmail electronic mail program and its
Chrome Web browser. Last month, the group accused Google of lobbying
Congress to weaken privacy protections for medical records stored in
its Google Health program. “Their business model is incompatible with privacy,” says Jamie Court, Consumer Watchdog’s president.
Google Executive Apologizes Over Email To Consumer Watchdog Donor
Lincoln Spector and Ian Lamont
23. February 2009
Bob Boorstin, Google’s Director of Corporate and Policy Communications,
issued a statement on Monday apologizing for sending information about
Consumer Watchdog to The Rose Foundation. Earlier on Monday, Consumer
Watchdog published the text of an email that Boorstin sent to the
foundation on February 9, in which he asked it to consider withdrawing
funding. Boorstin cited Consumer Watchdog’s campaign to highlight
Google’s alleged lobbying activities on Capitol Hill.
Consumer Privacy Advocates Seek Search Engine Solution
19. February 2009
No
one knows more about us—our ailments, significant others, favorite
music, what we’re thinking about buying, and how much we spend—than our
search engines. Virtually all search engines gather information about
how searchers query, what they click, and where they wind up. This
personal information (i.e., IP addresses, cookies, session IDs) is
stored alongside queries for anywhere between 90 days and forever. "I
think most users simply don’t realize the amount of personal
information they provide," says John M. Simpson, a consumer policy
advocate with the nonprofit group Consumer Watchdog.
Availability Of Online Health Records Sparks Privacy Concerns
16. February 2009
Consumer advocacy groups, such as Patient Privacy Rights (PPR) and
Consumer Watchdog, warn that such online records could pose a threat to
patients’ health privacy rights. PPR says the most recent health IT
portion of the Senate version of the economic stimulus bill intoduces
loopholes that allow the sale and misuse of personal health information.
Google Defends Privacy of Gmail Service
31. December 2008
A Santa Monica, California-based nonprofit group that advocates for
consumers is calling for the Internet’s search and ad leader to change
the way it records users’ information. Officials with Consumer Watchdog say they want to see Google Inc. store
personal search data for less than its current nine months, following
Yahoo!’s lead, and also to give users a choice to “opt out” out of data
retention, as some other search engines do.
26. February 2009