Inside Google

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-VT, said the jurisdiction of the Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law will include: oversight of laws and policies governing the collection, protection, use, and dissemination of commercial information by the private sector, including online behavioral advertising; privacy within social networking websites and other online privacy issues; enforcement and implementation of commercial information privacy laws and policies; use of technology by the private sector to protect privacy, enhance transparency and encourage innovation; privacy standards for the collection, retention, use and dissemination of personally identifiable commercial information; and privacy implications of new or emerging technologies.

“Online technologies raise a multitude of challenges to consumers’ privacy rights and it’s important to have a Senate panel specifically charged with confronting those issues,” said John M. Simpson, director of Consumer Watchdog’s Inside Google Project. “The committee should immediately take up one of the largest privacy intrusions in history, the Google Wi-Spy scandal, and focus as well on Do Not Track Me legislation.”

Read the letter to Franken and Ranking Member Tom Coburn here: http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/resources/ltrfranken021511.pdf

In the Wi-Spy incident, Google’s Street View cars gathered private data from consumers’ Wi-Fi networks in more than 30 countries around the world. So far there has been no adequate public explanation from Google of what the Internet giant intended to do with the information. More than 35 state attorneys general and the FCC are investigating. Charges are pending in a number of countries.

Last week Rep. Jackie Speier, D-CA, introduced the HR 654, “Do Not Track Me Online Act.”  Sen. Mark Pryor, D-AR, has been considering offering Do Not Track legislation in the Senate.

Many observers believe that privacy may emerge as an area of bi-partisan consensus.  Oklahoma Republican Tom Coburn will serve as the subcommittee’s ranking member.  Other Democratic Senators on the panel will include Chuck Schumer of New York, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut.

Before his election to the Senate last November, Blumenthal was attorney general in Connecticut and led the Wi-Spy probe on behalf of the state attorneys general.

In addition to Sen. Coburn Republican Senators on the subcommittee will include Orrin Hatch of Utah and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.

Consumer Watchdog has been working to protect consumers’ online privacy rights and educate them about the issues through its Inside Google Project. Its goal has been to convince Google of the social and economic importance of giving consumers control over their online lives. By persuading Google, the Internet’s leading company, to adopt adequate guarantees, its policies would become the gold standard for privacy for the industry, potentially improving the performance of the entire online sector.

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Consumer Watchdog, is a nonprofit, nonpartisan consumer advocacy organization with offices in Washington, DC and Santa Monica, CA.  Consumer Watchdog’s website is www.ConsumerWatchdog.org. Visit our new Google Privacy and Accountability Project website: http://InsideGoogle.com.