Inside Google

LIVE BLOG: Notes on David Vladeck’s preview of the FTC report on online privacy

The FTC missed its deadline for posting its online privacy report online due to "technical problems"… Anti-trust panel going strong.   Watch live here http://www.visualwebcaster.com/consumerwatchdog   We had the first words on the report earlier at Consumer Watchdog's conference on the future of online consumer protection.    Report just came online about an hour late, a [...]

Our letter to Eric Schmidt: Google shouldn’t care more about its own privacy than ours

Google’s mission may be to open the world to information, but it is refusing to let our consumer group buy a search advertisement promoting wildly popular online animation that takes CEO Eric Schmidt to task over his statements about privacy issues. It seems the search giant cares a lot more about its own corporate privacy, than it does about its users’ privacy.

We have taken the “Do Not Track Me” fight to Times Square!

Right now, running twice an hour in Times Square, there’s a 540 sq. ft. animation of Google CEO Eric Schmidt giving little kids free ice cream and secretly gathering their personal information.
We put up the ad to make the public aware of how out of touch Schmidt and Google are when it comes to our privacy rights.

Watch our new Times Square video: Don’t Be Evil?

Do you want Google or any other online company looking over your shoulder and tracking your every move online just so it can increase its profits? Consumers have a right to privacy. They should control how their information is gathered and what it is used for.

Watch our video, and sign our petition telling Congress to make a “Do Not Track Me” list.

There’s no privacy in third world America

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.

Will City of L.A. jump into Google’s cloud?

I spent all afternoon Monday waiting at the LA City Council Budget Committee to give the Council members my two minutes on why Google’s proposal to put the City’s computing into its cloud could be dangerous. In a nutshell: Security,…

Authors & consumers uniting against Google book deal

Google’s overreaching in trying to tightly control scanned digital copies of world literature has stuck an alarm bell with more than just consumers and the Justice Department

Googlebuster fights back against behavioral advertising

One of the editors of Adbusters magazine has a populist strategy to create an online revolt against Google’s latest forray into targeted online advertising, a tactic that Congress Quarterly reports, from behind its subscription wall, caught the eye of federal lawmakers Wednesday.

Facebook’s new democracy could challenge other web giants

Facebook has taken the unusual step of allowing 30% of its members to
decide privacy policies.  CBS News and CNET’s Larry Magid and I talked
the change over in this interview late last night.

Google wants to get rid of watchdogs, no apologies

When I walked into the Consumer Watchdog office today on a press conference seeking to protect benefits for autistic children, it occurred to me just what is so insidious about Google’s efforts to de-fund our consumer group.

Privacy Watchdog Condemns Google For Effort To Defund It: Calls For Greater Corporate Disclosure About Lobbying Efforts And Independent Privacy Chief

Washington, DC — Consumer Watchdog President Jamie Court wrote
Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt today questioning the company’s priorities
following efforts by one of Google’s top executives to dissuade a
charitable foundation from supporting the nonpartisan group’s privacy
efforts.

NYT weighs in for online privacy controls

The oracle of progressive opinion, the New York Times editorial page, articulated the core concept for new privacy protection in America: "Internet users should be able to control how much of their personal data companies keep."

Congress Warned Of Google Privacy & Security Risks After Google Markets Services To Staffers On Hill

New Video Shows Privacy Problems With G-Mail
Washington, DC — Consumer Watchdog released a new on-line video
exposing privacy problems with Google’s Gmail service and other Google
applications in the wake of Google’s recent marketing efforts on
Capitol Hill.   At a speech in Washington D.C. today, Google CEO Eric
Schmidt acknowledged the group’s privacy concerns and expressed an
interest in addressing them. He said his concern was balancing
performance and speed of the system with privacy and security demands.