As we have been putting Consumer Watchdog’s new Inside Google Website through its paces while it’s still in “Beta” mode, I discovered an example of exactly the sort thing Google needs to explain.
Blog Post
Can Google explain this search result?
Archive | Tag: black box
News Clipping
Group Calls On Justice To Probe Google Searches
The
consumer advocacy group Consumer Watchdog wrote the Justice Department
Wednesday to urge it to investigate allegations that Google is
manipulating its search results to favor its own products.
Blog Post
Google’s European troubles and one good thing about the Italian case
Google has taken a one-two punch to the chin this week from Europe first with the news that the European Commission is probing the Internet giant for possible antitrust violations followed by the conviction of three top executives for invasion of…
Press Release
Consumer Watchdog Urges Justice To Include Search Manipulation In Google Probe
WASHINGTON, DC — Consumer Watchdog today called upon the Justice
Department to ensure that its ongoing antitrust probe of Google’s
business practices include an investigation of whether the Internet
giant is manipulating its search results to favor its own products.
News Clipping
Can Google Be Trusted? No: The Search Engine Must Do More To Protect Private Data
Few doubt that Internet giant Google is succeeding in its audacious
corporate mission "to organize the world’s information and make it
universally accessible and useful." The problem is that the mission
puts Google directly at odds with our privacy rights, and Google
appears unwilling to give consumers enough control.
News Clipping
Now’s Your Chance To Spy On Google
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."
News Clipping
Google Dashboard Provides Too Much Info And Yet Not Enough
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.
News Clipping
Poking At Google’s New Privacy Dashboard
… 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."
News Clipping
Dashboard Shows What Google Knows About You
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.
News Clipping
Mixed Reviews For Google Dashboard
Google launched an application Thursday that allows users to see what data is stored in their accounts, but at least one group says the effort doesn’t go far enough. The Google Dashboard is "designed to be simple and useful" and summarizes data for a range of products from e-mail and calendar applications to social networking and video sharing platforms. Consumer Watchdog, a group that has repeatedly thrashed Google for its advertising and privacy protection practices, said the Internet giant should let users opt out of tracking and delete information associated with their computer’s IP address from Google’s servers.