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Google Stock Split Wins Approval; CEO Loses Voice
Consumer Watchdog demonstrator Don McLeod protests in front of a Google shareholder outside of Google headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., Thursday, June 21, 2012 before the shareholders meeting. Protestors demonstrated to help raise awareness of Google’s online tracking policy. They are calling for legislation for “Do Not Track” mechanism urged by the FTC. They are protesting information from being gathered by Google without permission.
Continue reading...Trust Busters Put Google In Crosshairs
2. June 2012
Consumer Watchdog, a vocal anti-Google advocacy group, has urged regulators to consider breaking up Google. The group says the company’s search engine is a “gateway” to the Web and that it should be forced to spin off some of its businesses to ensure that it doesn’t have an unfair advantage.
Continue reading...Privacy Group Voices Concerns Over Google-Backed Autonomous Vehicle Legislation
1. June 2012
The advocacy group Consumer Watchdog is raising concerns about Google’s altruistic motives when it comes to autonomous vehicles. The group sees The Big G’s efforts less as a way to reduce crashes and save lives, and more as a ploy to mine and monetize even more personal data. And it wants to block a bill that would clear the way for Google’s self-driving cars to legally cruise California roads unless privacy protections are in place.
Continue reading...Group Wants Privacy Protection in Self-Driving Car Bill
1. June 2012
Nonprofit group Consumer Watchdog has published an open letter to state assembly speaker John Perez seeking amendments to SB 1298, which would allow Google to legally operate its self-driving cars on California roadways.
Continue reading...Thursday Poll: Should Driverless Cars Protect Privacy?
31. May 2012
In California, the state is close to approving allowing the automated cars on the road. (And in Spain, a convoy of them recently took to the highway.) But some people in California are raising privacy concerns. Google, of course, is known for tracking where its users go on the web and using that information to make money.
Continue reading...Privacy Group Wants To Put The Brakes on Google’s Driverless Cars
31. May 2012
A privacy group wants to put the brakes on Google’s driverless cars, demanding that they shouldn’t be allowed on the road until privacy legislation has been put into place. Consumer Watchdog, a nonpartisan, nonprofit group, is demanding that the technology is incorporated into a bill, SB 1289, which would see proper legislation around this technology, put into place to protect people.
Continue reading...Consumer Group Says Self-Driving Cars Pose Privacy Risk
30. May 2012
The legislation should be amended to provide adequate privacy protection for users of the technology, said Jamie Court, president of Consumer Watchdog. “Without appropriate regulations, Google’s vehicles will be able to gather unprecedented amounts of information about the use of those vehicles. How will it be used? Just as Google tracks us around the Information Superhighway, it will now be looking over our shoulders on every highway and byway,” Court said in a letter to Assembly Speaker John A. Perez (D-Los Angeles).
Continue reading...Privacy Group Wants Google’s Driverless Cars Kept Off The Road
30. May 2012
A privacy group is calling on the California Assembly to keep Google’s self-driving cars off the road. Consumer Watchdog, a non-profit privacy group, sent an open letter to the Assembly today urging members to defeat a bill, SB 1289, that would allow Google’s self-driving cars on California’s roads unless the bill is amended to provide “adequate” privacy protection for the cars’ users.
Continue reading...California Offers First Test Case for Google’s Robot Cars
30. May 2012
California Senate Bill 1298 is now up for grabs in the State House after unanimous passage in the state Senate. The bill permits “autonomous vehicles” on California roadways. In a protest letter to the California House Speaker, the group Consumer Watchdog seeks to kill portions of the bill. The group leaders write that the company lost its trustworthiness with the so-called “Wi-Spy scandal, the largest wiretapping effort ever, in which Google’s Street View cars sucked up emails, passwords and other data from private Wi-Fi networks in 30 countries around the world.” Click here to read a report from the group.
Continue reading...European Regulators Put Google in the Hot Seat on Privacy Changes
25. May 2012
Stonewalling is Google’s M.O. when it comes to regulatory requests, John M. Simpson, Consumer Watchdog’s privacy project director, told the E-Commerce Times. “Google did it with the FCC over its inquiry into the StreetView project,” he said. “The FCC fined Google (US)$25,000 because it dragged its feet in responding.”
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21. June 2012