Inside Google

Blog Post

Google moves to profit from its “crown jewels” — your data

Posted by John M. Simpson

A Wall Street Journal article this week details how Google is increasingly moving to maximize profits from the vast amount of personal data it has amassed in its global network of servers at the expense of consumers’ privacy. Google chairman Eric Schmidt once claimed Google put its money “where our principles are.” The Journal’s revealing article showing how profits triumph over privacy demonstrates the stark reality: Google puts its principles where the money is.

News Clipping

Google Proposes Separate Rules for Wireless Web

By Amy Thomson , BLOOMBERG NEWS

Verizon Communications Inc. and Google Inc. urged U.S. regulators to leave wireless Internet services outside most policies that are designed to prevent carriers from making some websites perform better than others. Consumer Watchdog, a consumer group based in Santa Monica, said the proposal “completely undermines the future of the Internet” because the wireless use of the Web is gaining in popularity.

News Clipping

Google-Verizon call for Congressional ban on Net Neutrality for mobile devices

By Byron Acohido , THE LAST WATCHDOG.COM

John Simpson, director of Consumer Watchdog, concurs. He says the Google-Verizon proposal “pays lip service” to Net Neutrality and contains two fundamental flaws.

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Anger Greets Google-Verizon Plan for Routing Web Traffic

By Byron Acohido , USA TODAY

“Ultimately, consumers would pay the costs for the premium delivery, or worse, would never see the content of smaller companies,” says John Simpson, director of advocacy group Consumer Watchdog. “Google claims it won’t use premium channels for delivery, but not long ago they professed to defend true net neutrality.”

Blog Post

There’s no privacy in third world America

Posted by 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.

Blog Post

Google-Verizon blueprint: creeping control of Internet by corporate giants

Posted by Margot Williams

The Google-Verizon statement on regulating the Internet isn’t business deal, the two companies say. Its a “legislative framework proposal” and a “a path to the open internet.” Web watchers aren’t buying it. It’s an alliance of two companies looking to lock in market advantages with political action.

Blog Post

Sign Our Petition: Defend a free and open Internet

Posted by Kent McInnis

Two giant corporations – Google and Verizon — have just announced a joint plan that would kill the open Internet as we know it. They want to allow Internet Service Providers to charge a premium do deliver some data services faster than other content. They would place no restraint on data discrimination on the wireless Internet.

We can’t let two companies decide the rules for the Internet. The Federal Communications Commission must act to ensure that “Net Neutrality” is guaranteed for both the wireline and wireless Internet. Please sign our petition.

Press Release

Google-Verizon broadband proposal undermines Internet, Consumer Watchdog says

CONTACT: John M. Simpson , 310-392-7041, or cell: 310-292-1902

SANTA MONICA, CA — Google and Verizon’s new joint broadband proposal pays lip service to the idea of “net neutrality,” but actually would completely undermine the open and free Internet we enjoy, Consumer Watchdog said today.

Press Release

Consumer Watchdog asks FBI, DEA to explain use of Google Earth

CONTACT: John M. Simpson , 310-392-7041; or Carmen Balber, 202-629-3043

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The FBI and DEA are now making extensive use of Google Earth, according to federal spending records. Consumer Watchdog is filing Freedom of Information Act requests with the agencies today to determine how the Internet giant’s digital mapping technology is being used for domestic surveillance, including whether it is used for racial profiling or other abuses of civil liberties.

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Google, Verizon Offer Internet Proposal

By Staff Writers , SILICON VALLEY/SAN JOSE BUSINESS JOURNAL

Santa Monica-based Consumer Watchdog, however, said that while the new broadband proposal “pays lip service to the idea of net neutrality,” it would actually “completely undermine the open and free Internet we enjoy.” John M. Simpson, consumer advocate with the nonpartisan, nonprofit public interest group, said there are two main problems with the proposal.

Blog Post

Google-Verizon deal prompts protest petitions

Posted by John M. Simpson

Several progress groups like MoveOn.org and Color of Change have launched online petition campaigns aimed at persuading Google to stick with its earlier espoused principles on “net neutrality” and not cut a a deal with telecommunications giant Verizon that would undermine an open Internet.

News Clipping

Has Google Jumped the Shark?

By Milo Yiannopoulos , TELEGRAPH UK

Google has admitted to “accidentally” retrieving and storing masses of personal information, including snippets of emails, while trawling for public WiFi spots. The accidents occurred over a period of four years in 30 countries. Interpreting this bombshell charitably, we might say it was a major and avoidable blunder that cost the company a lot of good will and trust. But groups like Consumer Watchdog suggest that Google was just seeing what it could get away with, and that we wouldn’t know about it at all if they hadn’t got busted: “Its computer engineers run amok, push the envelope and gather whatever data they can until their fingers are caught in the cookie jar.”

News Clipping

Google Make Deal With Verizon That Could Undermine Net Neutrality

By Jason Theodorou , FRESH BUSINESS THINKING.COM

Digital rights advocacy groups took a cautious view of the deal. John Simpson of Consumer Watchdog said: “Apparently Google redefines principles to suit the business need of the moment… What Google and Verizon are trying to do is carve up the Internet behind closed doors for their own benefit.” The deal comes after the Federal Communications Commission disbanded talks on net neutrality, saying that it had failed to create an agreement on a ‘robust framework to preserve the openness and freedom of the internet’.