Inside Google

Press Release

Expedia is worried about Google/ITA deal

CONTACT: Margot Williams

More fallout from Google’s proposed purchase of Internet advertising powerhouse ITA Software, which was announced earlier this month.

Google Wi-Spy practices could have collected data about national security

John M. Simpson

Oz Privacy Boss Says Google Wi-Fi Slurp Breached Law

Cade Metz

In an effort to spur a Congressional investigation in the States, the consumer watchdog known as Consumer Watchdog has retraced Street View’s past Washington D.C. routes and found that various members of Congress have open Wi-Fi networks whose data may have been lifted by the Google cars. The watchdog wrote a letter to Representative Jane Harman, chair of the Homeland Security Subcommittee on Intelligence, Information Sharing and Terrorism Risk Assessment and a former ranking member of the Intelligence Committee, telling her that Google may have lifted her personal info.

Google gets a slap on the wrist for violating Australian privacy law

John M. Simpson

Australia’s Privacy Commissioner Karen Curtis says Google’s Wi-Spy snooping violated the law down under, but instead of punishing the company she asked for an apology and a promise to do the right thing going forward. Apparently that’s the most she could do.

Press Release

“Monopole” is French for Google

CONTACT: Margot Williams

Last week the French Competition Authority officially declared Google a monopoly. Said the NYT: “That conclusion is hardly novel, but the decision appears to go beyond any previous official ruling in the United States or elsewhere.”

Press Release

Double Trouble for Google

CONTACT: Margot Williams

Twice in the past week, Google has come in contact with Europe’s rather different culture of competition and privacy, leaving Mountain View contemplating investigations and negotiations it would have preferred to avoid.

Consumer Group Sniffs Congresswoman’s Open Wi-Fi

David Kravets

We’re not sure what’s more humorous: That California Rep. Jane Harman, the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, maintains two unencrypted Wi-Fi networks at her residence, or that a consumer group sniffed her unsecured traffic in a bid to convince lawmakers to hold hearings about Google.

Google Steet View Privacy Controversy Touches Congress

Brian Prince

Consumer Watchdog accuses Google of breaching the home WiFi networks of prominent lawmakers as part of its Google Street View snafu. To bolster its point, the group conducted some so-called wardriving to see if it could find unencrypted networks. In doing so, however, some say Consumer Watchdog went too far.

Consumer Watchdog Believes Google ‘WiSpy’ Potentially Logged Homeland Security Data

Liva Judic

In the long list of legal issues Google is facing at the moment, here’s another one to add to the record: Consumer Watchdog suspects the Mountain View-based company to have picked up unprotected payload data (i.e. Wi-Fi) from the home network of a member of the Department of Homeland Security as well as from houses of members of Congress. Ironically enough, person who has most likely been snooped upon is Rep. Jane Harman, D-CA, chair of the Intelligence Subcommittee of the Homeland Security.

Google Street View Scanned US Politicos

Staff Writers

A US consumer site claimed that Google Street View may well have cast its beady Orwellian eye over US politicians’ wi-fi networks. Consumer Watchdog said that if that happened, US national security data could have been compromised. It said that Representative Jane Harman, who chairs the Intelligence Subcommittee of the Homeland Security Committee “has at least one wireless network in her Washington DC home that could have been breached by Google.”