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Privacy advocates panned the bill during a conference call this afternoon, suggesting its lack of opt-out requirements maintain the status quo. “This bill really adopts and endorses an archaic, bankrupt notice and consent regimen that we know does not work,” said a representative of ConsumerWatchdog.org.
News Clipping
With behavioural targeting and privacy becoming hot internet issues, a coalition of consumer and privacy advocacy groups is taking their fight for online rights to Capitol Hill. The sizeable coalition – its members are Consumer Action, Center for Digital Democracy, Consumer Federation of America, Consumers Union, Consumer Watchdog, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Privacy Lives, Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, Privacy Times, US Public Interest Research Group and the World Privacy Forum – says industry self-regulation has not provided meaningful consumer protection and legislation is needed.
Blog Post
It’s not surprising that Google wants clout in Washington and is willing to spend big bucks to ensure that its corporate voice is heard. What surprised me, though, is the…
Blog Post
Outgoing Federal Trade Commissioner Pamela Jones Harbour blasted Google and Facebook on Wednesday for insufficient concern about consumers’ privacy.
Harbour,…
News Clipping
Google sees an Internet far more crowded with competitors than just a year ago. At least, that’s what the company is telling government regulators. Critics of Google’s dominance in search — Americans use Google for
about two thirds of U.S. searches, and the company has more than 70
percent of U.S. search advertising revenue, and about 90 percent in
Europe — say the expanded list of competitors is an attempt by Google
to paper over its dominance. "I think they are feeling the heat from several serious antitrust
investigations, and that’s reflected in the language they are using in
the 10-K," said John Simpson, of Consumer Watchdog. He argued in a
recent blog post that Google’s statements that it has many competitors
actually proves that "the opposite is actually true" and that "the real
risk to Google’s business is not from competition," but that regulators
in the U.S. and Europe "will act in the interest of consumers and force
the Internet giant to engage" in competition.
Blog Post
Google, under antitrust scrutiny by the U.S. Department of Justice, the …
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A leading privacy group has urged US regulators to investigate Google’s
new social networking service Buzz, one week after its launch.
The Consumer Watchdog, an advocacy group, said it was not surprised by this stumble. "This case illustrates a lot about Google’s corporate culture where a
company is run by computer scientists whose operating method is don’t
ask for permission when you can always ask for forgiveness," said the
organisation’s John Simpson.
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The Internet giant has tweaked the sign-up process to make the
opt-out option clearer and made it easier to block people from
following users.
"Google shows continued tone deafness to the very important privacy
rights of consumers," John Simpson of Consumer Watchdog said.
Blog Post
Google launched its much anticipated social networking service, Buzz, today aimed a competing with sites like Facebook and Twitter….
Blog Post
Online privacy protection for consumers has been built around the idea of "notice and choice" but it was clear to me at Thursday’s Federal Trade Commission…
