Privacy advocates argue that the bill's exemption for "operational" collection of data--allowing those practices to take place under an "opt-out" rule--gives advertisers far too much leeway. "This bill really adopts an archaic and bankrupt 'notice and consent' regime that we all know doesn't' work," says John Simpson, head of the Google Privacy and Accountability project at Consumer Watchdog.
Continue reading...Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Privacy advocates panned the bill during a conference call this afternoon, suggesting its lack of opt-out requirements maintain the status quo. "This bill really adopts and endorses an archaic, bankrupt notice and consent regimen that we know does not work," said a representative of ConsumerWatchdog.org.
Continue reading...Monday, May 3, 2010
With behavioural targeting and privacy becoming hot internet issues, a coalition of consumer and privacy advocacy groups is taking their fight for online rights to Capitol Hill. The sizeable coalition - its members are Consumer Action, Center for Digital Democracy, Consumer Federation of America, Consumers Union, Consumer Watchdog, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Privacy Lives, Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, Privacy Times, US Public Interest Research Group and the World Privacy Forum - says industry self-regulation has not provided meaningful consumer protection and legislation is needed.
Continue reading...Wednesday, March 24, 2010
It's not surprising that Google wants clout in Washington and is willing to spend big bucks to ensure that its corporate voice is heard. What surprised me, though, is the...
Continue reading...Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Outgoing Federal Trade Commissioner Pamela Jones Harbour blasted Google and Facebook on Wednesday for insufficient concern about consumers' privacy. Harbour,...
Continue reading...Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Google sees an Internet far more crowded with competitors than just a year ago. At least, that's what the company is telling government regulators. Critics of Google's dominance in search — Americans use Google for about two thirds of U.S. searches, and the company has more than 70 percent of U.S. search advertising revenue, and about 90 percent in Europe — say the expanded list of competitors is an attempt by Google to paper over its dominance. "I think they are feeling the heat from several serious antitrust investigations, and that's reflected in the language they are using in the 10-K," said John Simpson, of Consumer Watchdog. He argued in a recent blog post that Google's statements that it has many competitors actually proves that "the opposite is actually true" and that "the real risk to Google's business is not from competition," but that regulators in the U.S. and Europe "will act in the interest of consumers and force the Internet giant to engage" in competition.
Continue reading...Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Google, under antitrust scrutiny by the U.S. Department of Justice, the ...
Continue reading...Wednesday, February 17, 2010
A leading privacy group has urged US regulators to investigate Google's new social networking service Buzz, one week after its launch. The Consumer Watchdog, an advocacy group, said it was not surprised by this stumble. "This case illustrates a lot about Google's corporate culture where a company is run by computer scientists whose operating method is don't ask for permission when you can always ask for forgiveness," said the organisation's John Simpson.
Continue reading...Friday, February 12, 2010
The Internet giant has tweaked the sign-up process to make the opt-out option clearer and made it easier to block people from following users. "Google shows continued tone deafness to the very important privacy rights of consumers," John Simpson of Consumer Watchdog said.
Continue reading...Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Google launched its much anticipated social networking service, Buzz, today aimed a competing with sites like Facebook and Twitter....
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Tuesday, May 4, 2010
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