Tag Archive | "black box"
Blog Post
Can Google explain this search result?
Posted by John M. Simpson
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.
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Group Calls On Justice To Probe Google Searches
By Juliana Gruenwald TECH DAILY DOSE
Thursday, February 25, 2010
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.
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Google’s European troubles and one good thing about the Italian case
Posted by John M. Simpson
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
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...
Continue reading...Press Release
Consumer Watchdog Urges Justice To Include Search Manipulation In Google Probe
CONTACT: John M. Simpson 310-392-0522 ext 317 or Carmen Balber 202-629-3043
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
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.
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Can Google Be Trusted? No: The Search Engine Must Do More To Protect Private Data
By John M. Simpson Op-Ed Commentary SACRAMENTO BEE
Sunday, November 29, 2009
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.
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Now’s Your Chance To Spy On Google
By Bob Sullivan MSNBC.COM
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
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."
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Google Dashboard Provides Too Much Info And Yet Not Enough
By Clint Boulton EWEEK.COM
Saturday, November 7, 2009
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.
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Poking At Google’s New Privacy Dashboard
By Brian Krebs SECURITY FIX - WASHINGTON POST BLOG
Friday, November 6, 2009
... 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."
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Dashboard Shows What Google Knows About You
By Sharon Gaudin COMPUTERWORLD
Thursday, November 5, 2009
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.
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Mixed Reviews For Google Dashboard
By Andrew Noyes TECH DAILY DOSE - NATIONAL JOURNAL
Thursday, November 5, 2009
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.
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Google Offers Users A Peek At Stored Data
By Miguel Helft BITS - NYTIMES TECH BLOG
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Google, which has been criticized frequently for amassing large amounts of data about people, is giving users an easy way to find out what information it stores in their accounts. John Simpson, of Consumer Watchdog, a frequent critic of Google, said Dashboard gave users the appearance of control over privacy but did not really prevent Google from tracking users across the Web. “What the Dashboard does is list all the information linked directly to your name, but what it doesn’t do is let you know and control the data directly tied to your computer’s IP address, which is Google’s black box and data mine, Mr. Simpson said in a press release. “Google isn’t truly protecting privacy until it lets you control that information.”
Continue reading...Press Release
Google Dashboard Is Small Step For User Control, Consumer Watchdog Says
CONTACT: John M. Simpson 310-392-0522 ext. 317 or cell 310-292-1902
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Group Calls for 'Make-Me-Anonymous' Button On Home Page SANTA MONICA, CA -- The new Google Dashboard touted by the Internet giant as offering users “transparency, choice and control” of user data stored by the company doesn’t give consumers adequate control over protecting their information from Google’s marketing machine, Consumer Watchdog said today. Consumer Watchdog applauded the company for giving consumers a single place to go to manage data, but said Google needed to give consumers the ability to stop being tracked by the company and to delete information associated with their computer’s IP address from the Google servers.
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L.A. needs assurances before moving to Google’s ‘cloud’
Posted by John M. Simpson
Friday, July 17, 2009
Frustrated by an out-of-date email system that Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's spokesman Matt Szabo calls "Pac-Man-era technology" the City of Los Angeles is considering entrusting...
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Consumer Watchdog’s Carmen Balber discusses Internet privacy and the need for an online “Do Not Track Me” list.
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