News Clipping
“Apple needs to do a lot more to explain what it has been doing and why, and a good start would be for Steve Jobs to appear at the hearing,” says John Simpson, spokesman for Consumer Watchdog.
News Clipping
“No one has really understood the extent of the data collection going on with these spy phones,” said John M. Simpson, Washington-based director of nonprofit Consumer Watchdog’s privacy project. “Last week, it started to become clear just how much was going on.”
News Clipping
Still, the report on Google’s data collection policy yesterday prompted advocacy group Consumer Watchdog, based in Washington, D.C., to ask for a law to ensure that phone users can choose not to be tracked. “These aren’t smartphones, they are spy phones,” said John Simpson, director of the group’s privacy project.
Press Release
SANTA MONICA, CA – New details of how tech giants Google and Apple spy on users of their smartphones demonstrate the need for Do Not Track Me legislation that would cover mobile devices, Consumer Watchdog said today.
News Clipping
“These aren’t smartphones — they are spy phones,” said John M. Simpson, director of Consumer Watchdog’s Privacy Project. “Consumers must have the right to control whether their data is gathered and how it is used. People don’t realize the absolute gold mine of data about their life that exists inside their smartphone,” he added. “There really needs to be an educational process started so that people will begin to understand that.”
News Clipping
A coalition of leading privacy groups urged the public to push for industrywide adoption of the tough online data protection terms the government imposed on Google as part of a recent settlement of complaints about…
News Clipping
“We strongly believe that any privacy bill should direct the Federal Trade Commission to require and enforce a “Do Not Track Me” mechanism. Consumers should have the right to use the Internet and mobile devices with confidence that their privacy choices are respected, and with anonymity if they choose,” John M. Simpson, Consumer Watchdog president, wrote in a letter to Senators McCain and Kerry.
News Clipping
While consumer advocacy organizations like the Consumer’s Union and the Consumer Federation of American supported the proposal, a separate contingent of consumer privacy advocates — including Consumer Watchdog and the Center for Digital Democracy — applauded the bipartisan effort, but said more could be done.
News Clipping
Consumer advocacy groups said the bill wasn’t strong enough. In a letter to Kerry and McCain, privacy advocates at the Center for Digital Democracy and Consumer Watchdog said the bill still gives companies too much latitude to profile users and track their activity. They said the bill should include the FTC’s Do Not Track proposal.
News Clipping
It was also a disappointment to a coalition of consumer groups and privacy advocates, which welcomed the bill but called for it to be “significantly strengthened.” “I don’t think this is going to affect online marketing at all,” said Jeff Chester, director of the Center for Digital Democracy privacy group. John Simpson, of Consumer Watchdog, agreed. “We cannot support it today,” he said.
