Inside Google

There’s no privacy in third world America

Jamie Court

A big New York foundation once told me years ago that privacy is the last thing people in the developing world have to worry about. It was a nice way of saying no to funding for my consumer group’s privacy project, but the line rang out to me again this week as new reporting at the Wall Street Journal brings into focus the great privacy betrayals of America’s giant tech companies and Third World America, Arianna Huffington’s new book, makes its debut.

Fortune says the “search party” is over for Google

John M. Simpson

Google has a stranglehold on search with 65 percent of the U.S. market — and even more in some other countries — but writing in Fortune magazine, Michael C. Copeland, says the Internet giant needs to find new sources of revenue or lose its status as a growth company.

John Simpson discusses Google’s Wi-Spying and intelligence links on Democracy Now!

John M. Simpson

Extension Lets You Know If Google Is Spying On You

Andrea Petrou

Google has also come under scrutiny from Consumer Watchdog, which has said that the Energy and Commerce Committee must conduct hearings into Google privacy violations, with information coming to light about Google’s classified contracts with the US government. Consumer Watchdog suggests that Google has been fibbing.

Liveblog: Wrapping up the Senate privacy hearing

Khan Shoieb

The three-hour hearing on Online Consumer Privacy has just come to a close, but unfortunately nothing substantive has emerged. Senators asked the two panels questions that were fed to them by their staff, and, when responses came from Google & Facebook that were conciliatory-sounding enough, the Senators refused, or perhaps more likely did not know how, to ask follow-up questions that might have actually taken us somewhere.

Liveblog: Google still “investigating” Wi-Spy activities

Khan Shoieb

Google Privacy Engineering Lead Dr. Alma Whitten told the Committee that the company was “conducting investigations” into why its Street View cars gathered communications from home WiFi networks.

Liveblog: FTC chairman endorses “opt-in”

Khan Shoieb

Federal Trade Commission Chairman Jon Leibowitz endorsed an opt-in framework for privacy policies on the internet over an opt-out one in response to a question by Chairman John D. Rockefeller IV (D-WV). Federal Trade Commission Chairman Jon Leibowitz endorsed an opt-in framework for privacy policies on the internet over an opt-out one in response to a question by Chairman John D. Rockefeller IV (D-WV).

Liveblogging online privacy hearing

Khan Shoieb

Today I will be liveblogging the U.S. Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation hearing on Consumer Online Privacy. It is the first hearing on this subject by a full committee.

Web 2.0 hearing overshadowed by politics; Simpson calls for Wi-Spy probe

Khan Shoieb

Consumer Watchdog’s John M. Simpson testified at a hearing yesterday on federal agency use of Web 2.0 technology, but the hearing got off to a rocky start when Ranking Member Patrick McHenry (R-NC) opted for a procedural gimmick and even introduced a motion to adjourn the hearing before the witnesses were able to testify.

Why Won’t Congress Look Into Google’s Wi-Spy Scandal?

Evan Thomas King