Blog Post
Google admitted Friday to the British data protection authorities that it failed to keep its promise to destroy data its Street View cars sucked up from private Wi-Fi networks. True to its form throughout out the Wi-Spy scandal, the Internet giant claimed it was all a mistake.
Blog Post
Google — facing the possibility of a penalty of around $4 billion — is trying to cut a deal with European antitrust regulators that would settle the regulators’ objections without having to pay a fine.
It’s not certain that an agreement can be reached, but if one is, it will have a direct impact on the United States. Joaquin Almunia, EU competition commissioner, said that any concessions the Internet giant offers to resolve the EU’s antitrust concerns would be applied worldwide.
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“Joe Barton is one of the most conservative Republicans in the House of Representatives, and Ed Markey is one of the most liberal,” said Consumer Watchdog’s Simpson. “The fact that those two guys can come together on this leads me to believe that privacy is likely to be one of the issues where there will be bipartisan agreement about the need to do something.”
Press Release
WASHINGTON, DC – Google and Facebook continued pumping record amounts of money into their lobbying efforts during the second quarter to influence federal lawmakers and regulators, according to lobbying disclosure forms filed with the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives.
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John M. Simpson, who is the lead Google researcher at Consumer Watchdog in Santa Monica, California, indicated he is skeptical of Google’s continued claims of innocence, “When they get caught with their fingers in the cookie jar doing something they clearly should not be doing, they say, ‘Oops, it was completely by accident.’”
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Despite Google’s protestations of innocence, or at least ignorance, consumer advocate organizations including Consumer Watchdog decried Google’s behavior and filed suit with the FTC. Needless to say, they are delighted about the reports of an impending settlement. “This is a wanton violation on Google’s part,” John M. Simpson, Consumer Watchdog’s privacy project director, told the E-Commerce Times, brushing aside the company’s claims the tracking was accidental. “What made it even worse is that they lied to users about what they were doing,” he added. “Google told people they were honoring the Safari browser settings.”
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Google officials have called the use of tracking cookies an accident caused by technical glitches that have been corrected. Privacy advocates have scoffed at those explanations. “When they get caught with their fingers in the cookie jar doing something they clearly should not be doing, they say, ‘Oops, it was completely by accident,’ ” said John M. Simpson of Consumer Watchdog, based in Santa Monica, Calif., and one of several groups to file complaints about Google’s alleged tracking on Apple browsers.
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The FTC’s proposed fine was applauded by Consumer Watchdog, a frequent critic of Google’s privacy practices. The penalty “sends a strong message about the seriousness of Google’s wanton and egregious privacy violation,” said John Simpson, director of Consumer Watchdog’s privacy project.
Press Release
Group Complained to Commission After Grad Student Discovered iPads, iPhones Were Hacked
SANTA MNICA, CA – The Federal Trade Commission reportedly plans to fine Google $22.5 million for hacking around privacy settings on iPhones and iPads that use Apple’s Safari browser. Consumer Watchdog praised the Commission today for its expected strong action defending consumer privacy.
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The application of constitutional protections in the digital world is far from clear, in many cases, but law enforcement agencies aren’t waiting for permission to access data — they’re bombarding providers with requests for information. “It is an outrageous intrusion on users’ privacy and potentially troublesome in terms of our eroding constitutional rights,” said Consumer Watchdog’s John M. Simpson.
