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“We appreciate this landmark privacy decision by the FTC, but Google needs to be punished and feel pain on its bottom line,” said John M. Simpson, director of Consumer Watchdog’s Privacy Project, in a statement. “Nothing will completely stop Google from invading users’ privacy until it gets hit where it hurts, its bank accounts.”
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“We appreciate this landmark privacy decision by the FTC, but Google needs to be punished and feel pain on its bottom line,” said Consumer Watchdog privacy project director John M. Simpson. “Nothing will completely stop Google from invading users’ privacy until it gets hit where it hurts, its bank accounts.”
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“My assessment of this is that the FTC is struggling mightily to do as much as it can, given the legal structure it’s got,” said John Simpson of Consumer Watchdog, which has urged the federal government to investigate Google in a number of areas. Simpson added the entire flap ultimately reflects the urgency with which Congress should pass a new law, preferably one that would allow consumers to opt-out of advertisements targeted to their browsing behavior, called “Do Not Track.”
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“It’s ironic it’s (+1) coming out on the same day” as the F.T.C. settlement, said John M. Simpson, an advocate at Consumer Watchdog, a critic of Google. “It seems to me there are some of the same kinds of issues that happened with Buzz. The key is how transparent and open it is about what’s going to be shared and how you share it.”
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John M. Simpson, director of Consumer Watchdog’s Privacy Project, said the FTC should have gone further and actually fined the search giant. “Nothing will completely stop Google from invading users’ privacy until it gets hit where it hurts, its bank accounts,” he said in a statement.
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John Simpson of Consumer Watchdog welcomed the FTC settlement but said Google “needs to be punished and feel pain on its bottom line. Nothing will completely stop Google from invading users’ privacy until it gets hit where it hurts, its bank accounts,” Simpson said.
Blog Post
The strong buzz in Washington, DC is that Google CEO Eric Schmidt is President Obama’s top choice for Commerce Secretary and an appointment is coming soon. The CEO who made billions collecting our personal information online and serving us up to advertisers, the guy who created online privacy problems, would head the federal agency responsible for developing and executing the administration’s online privacy policies.
Press Release
WASHINGTON, DC — Consumer Watchdog praised the Federal Trade Commission for requiring Google to submit to privacy audits for the next twenty years, but said the Internet giant should also face monetary penalties for its abuses. The nonpartisan, nonprofit public interest group also called for government action to curtail Google’s anti-competitive practices.
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Google hasn’t exactly made life easy for itself by already scanning millions of books. John M. Simpson, director of the privacy project for the non-profit California-based Consumer Watchdog group, supports the digitization of the world’s books, but says, “Google’s entire business model is to never ask permission, but to seek forgiveness if necessary. Judge Chin has ruled simply that you can’t take other people’s property and use it without asking.”
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“Google has built a monopoly in search, and having a monopoly isn’t necessarily illegal,” said John Simpson, a frequent Google critic who has been following the company’s business practices for the advocacy group Consumer Watchdog. “The question is once you are in a monopoly position, how do you use it? I think Google has repeatedly abused it, and that come out in this decision.”
