Press Release
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
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.
News Clipping
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
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
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.”
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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’.
Blog Post
Reports of a deal between Google and Verizon on “net neutrality’ are generating another public relations backlash against the Internet giant. The agreement, said the New York Times, “could allow Verizon to speed some online content to Internet users more quickly if the content’s creators are willing to pay for the privilege.
News Clipping
Nonprofit group Consumer Watchdog portrayed any compromise by Google on net neutrality as a betrayal. “Apparently Google redefines principles to suit the business need of the moment,” said John Simpson, a consumer advocate with the group. “What Google and Verizon are trying to do is carve up the Internet behind closed doors for their own benefit.”
Press Release
SANTA MONICA, CA — Google is compromising a long standing principle it claimed to support in an effort to boost profits as it backs away from a key premise of an open Internet — “net neutrality,” Consumer Watchdog said today.
Blog Post
The report in Wired last week about a high-tech firm funded jointly by Google and the CIA, Recorded Future, not only signaled a growing skepticism about the most popular Internet search engine. It also pointed up the dangers of the lack of transparency poses for Google.
