Inside Google

Both the Democratic and Republican Senate campaign committees are holding big fundraisers — the Democrats today at Google headquarters and the Republicans on Monday and Tuesday at the Grand Hyatt in Washington, DC. Consumer Watchdog objected to the Democratic event.

A Democratic Party-sponsored "national innovation conference" to
examine key policy and technology issues at Google’s headquarters
beginning today has critics charging that the $5,000-and-up ticket
prices limit access to the event to Silicon Valley high rollers and
raise the specter of "pay to play" politics. Consumer Watchdog in Santa Monica likened the event to Republicans holding an energy conference at an oil company headquarters. The consumer rights group urged California Sens. Barbara Boxer and
Dianne Feinstein and four other senators to boycott the fundraiser
sponsored by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

A watchdog group is calling on seven senators not
to attend an event at Google’s headquarters that the organization says
is a fundraiser masquerading as a policy conference. Consumer Watchdog
sent a letter
Wednesday
to the seven Democratic senators set to participate in the National
Innovation Conference Friday and Saturday sponsored by the Democratic
Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) at Google’s headquarters in
Mountain View, Calif. Those listed as attending include: Senators Mark
Begich, D-Alaska, Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., Tom
Carper, D-Del., Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., and
Mark Warner, D-Va., as well as President Obama’s pollster, Joel
Benenson, according to a DSCC brochure obtained by Consumer Watchdog.

Dashboard lets you get rid of some information on there. Google says
part of the goal here is to stop the theory about what Google knows and
doesn’t know about you, to provide transparency. But there are some
privacy advocates who say this is still this is not enough. For
example, one group called Consumer Watchdog put out this statement
saying, "If Google really wanted to give users control of their
privacy, it would give consumers the ability to be anonymous from the
company and advertisers in crucial areas like search data and online
behavior." And you can see the statement right there.

Public Policy Should Be Decided In Hearing Room With Sunlight And Transparency, Group Says

SANTA MONICA, CA — Warning that a Democratic Senate Campaign Committee
Fundraiser scheduled to be held at Google’s headquarters in Mountain
View, CA, on Friday created an appearance of a conflict of interest,
Consumer Watchdog  called on the seven Senators scheduled to appear not
to attend.

The Google Dashboard tool is also limited to information gathered on users when logged in to Google.  It
doesn’t give consumers access to information that might be tied to
individual consumers in other ways — such as searches associated with
individual computer IP address or cookies. That means it falls short of
being a true privacy tool, according to privacy rights advocacy group
Consumer Watchdog. "The
dashboard gives the appearance of control without the actual ability to
prevent Google from tracking you and delivering you to its marketers,”
said John M. Simpson, a spokesman for the nonprofit organization. "It
doesn’t reveal anything about what is at the heart of what I call
Google’s ‘black box’ — what is associated with your computer’s IP
address."

Indeed, privacy advocates, such as John Simpson of Consumer Watchdog, argued Google’s gesture with Dashboard was just a straw man and that if the company really wanted to help it would allow users to prevent search information from being logged or to prevent Google from tracking a user’s online activity while surfing the Web.

… Dashboard doesn’t really give users any
clearer insights into what the company is doing with all of the data it
collects. John Simpson, a consumer advocate with Consumer Watchdog,
said if Google really wants people to use Dashboard, the company should
make it easier to find, noting that there are few links to the tool
from the landing pages of any Google properties. Simpson said Google
also should make it easier for users to blow away stored search and
activity data across multiple Google properties with a single click. "Google is maximizing the PR value of this feature in response to
critics who have demanded online privacy guarantees," Simpson said in a
written statement. "They are letting a little light shine into the
black box that is Google, but to claim that this is transparency is
absurd."

The advocacy group Consumer Watchdog,
which has been critical of the amount of personal data Google stores,
called the dashboard a small step in the right direction. "If
Google really wanted to give users control over their privacy it would
give consumers the ability to be anonymous from the company and its
advertisers in crucial areas such as search data and online behavior,"
spokesman John M. Simpson said on the group’s Web site. "The Dashboard
give the appearance of control without the actual ability to prevent
Google from tracking you and delivering you to its marketers."

Critics Say Google Makes Some Privacy Progress, But Call For More Transparency

Consumer Watchdog, a non-profit advocacy group formerly known as the
Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, said in a statement today
that it applauds Google for giving users a single place to go to manage
their data. But at the same tine, the group also came down hard on
Google, contending that it needs to give users a vehicle for stopping
the company from collecting any personal data. The company should also
provide a way for users to delete their information from Google’s
servers, the group added.