Inside Google

Press Release

Antitrust Concerns Linger In Google Books Deal

CONTACT: Elinor Mills

The revised Google Books settlement agreement may quiet international opponents, but it still gives Google a monopoly on commercializing out-of-print books where the copyrights are unclaimed and fails to protect consumer privacy, opponents said on Monday. Also troubling to critics is the fact that the revised settlement circumvents traditional copyright provisions by allowing Google to digitize orphan works without first getting rights holder permission, while any Google competitors are blocked from doing so barring legislation granting them licensing rights. “For the millions of volumes of orphan books that Google has already scanned in, they can offer those without risk of anyone coming forward and suing them for infringement,” said John Simpson, a consumer advocate at Consumer Watchdog.

Press Release

Google submits revised digital book settlement to US judge

CONTACT: Chris Lefkow

Google and US authors and publishers submitted a revised settlement to a US judge Friday seeking approval of an agreement that would clear the way for millions of books to be sold online. Rival technology companies, privacy advocates, consumer watchdog groups
and the French and German governments are among those who filed
objections to the original settlement with the US District Court in New
York hearing the case.

Press Release

Google, Authors Try To Answer Book Deal Concerns

CONTACT: Diane Bartz

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Google and the
Authors Guild filed a new version of a deal to create a massive
online library on Friday in hopes of answering antitrust and
copyright concerns in the United States and overseas. Critics of the deal have been a varied group that includes
Yahoo, Amazon, Microsoft, the
National Writers Union, Consumer Watchdog and singer Arlo
Guthrie.

What Google Dashboard Knows About You

Heidi Collins Josh Levs

Dashboard lets you get rid of some information on there. Google says
part of the goal here is to stop the theory about what Google knows and
doesn’t know about you, to provide transparency. But there are some
privacy advocates who say this is still this is not enough. For
example, one group called Consumer Watchdog put out this statement
saying, "If Google really wanted to give users control of their
privacy, it would give consumers the ability to be anonymous from the
company and advertisers in crucial areas like search data and online
behavior." And you can see the statement right there.

Press Release

Consumer Watchdog Calls On Senators To Skip Fundraiser Set For Google Headquarters

CONTACT: John M. Simpson 310-392-0522 ext. 317 or cell 310-292-1902

Public Policy Should Be Decided In Hearing Room With Sunlight And Transparency, Group Says

SANTA MONICA, CA — Warning that a Democratic Senate Campaign Committee
Fundraiser scheduled to be held at Google’s headquarters in Mountain
View, CA, on Friday created an appearance of a conflict of interest,
Consumer Watchdog  called on the seven Senators scheduled to appear not
to attend.

Now’s Your Chance To Spy On Google

Bob Sullivan

The Google Dashboard tool is also limited to information gathered on users when logged in to Google.  It
doesn’t give consumers access to information that might be tied to
individual consumers in other ways — such as searches associated with
individual computer IP address or cookies. That means it falls short of
being a true privacy tool, according to privacy rights advocacy group
Consumer Watchdog. "The
dashboard gives the appearance of control without the actual ability to
prevent Google from tracking you and delivering you to its marketers,”
said John M. Simpson, a spokesman for the nonprofit organization. "It
doesn’t reveal anything about what is at the heart of what I call
Google’s ‘black box’ — what is associated with your computer’s IP
address."

Google Dashboard Provides Too Much Info And Yet Not Enough

Clint Boulton

Indeed, privacy advocates, such as John Simpson of Consumer Watchdog, argued Google’s gesture with Dashboard was just a straw man and that if the company really wanted to help it would allow users to prevent search information from being logged or to prevent Google from tracking a user’s online activity while surfing the Web.

Poking At Google’s New Privacy Dashboard

Brian Krebs

… Dashboard doesn’t really give users any
clearer insights into what the company is doing with all of the data it
collects. John Simpson, a consumer advocate with Consumer Watchdog,
said if Google really wants people to use Dashboard, the company should
make it easier to find, noting that there are few links to the tool
from the landing pages of any Google properties. Simpson said Google
also should make it easier for users to blow away stored search and
activity data across multiple Google properties with a single click. "Google is maximizing the PR value of this feature in response to
critics who have demanded online privacy guarantees," Simpson said in a
written statement. "They are letting a little light shine into the
black box that is Google, but to claim that this is transparency is
absurd."

Google Releases Dashboard Privacy Tool

Doug Gross

The advocacy group Consumer Watchdog,
which has been critical of the amount of personal data Google stores,
called the dashboard a small step in the right direction. "If
Google really wanted to give users control over their privacy it would
give consumers the ability to be anonymous from the company and its
advertisers in crucial areas such as search data and online behavior,"
spokesman John M. Simpson said on the group’s Web site. "The Dashboard
give the appearance of control without the actual ability to prevent
Google from tracking you and delivering you to its marketers."

Dashboard Shows What Google Knows About You

Sharon Gaudin

Critics Say Google Makes Some Privacy Progress, But Call For More Transparency

Consumer Watchdog, a non-profit advocacy group formerly known as the
Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, said in a statement today
that it applauds Google for giving users a single place to go to manage
their data. But at the same tine, the group also came down hard on
Google, contending that it needs to give users a vehicle for stopping
the company from collecting any personal data. The company should also
provide a way for users to delete their information from Google’s
servers, the group added.