Inside Google

There’s no privacy in third world America

Jamie Court

A big New York foundation once told me years ago that privacy is the last thing people in the developing world have to worry about. It was a nice way of saying no to funding for my consumer group’s privacy project, but the line rang out to me again this week as new reporting at the Wall Street Journal brings into focus the great privacy betrayals of America’s giant tech companies and Third World America, Arianna Huffington’s new book, makes its debut.

Google-Verizon blueprint: creeping control of Internet by corporate giants

Margot Williams

The Google-Verizon statement on regulating the Internet isn’t business deal, the two companies say. Its a “legislative framework proposal” and a “a path to the open internet.” Web watchers aren’t buying it. It’s an alliance of two companies looking to lock in market advantages with political action.

Sign Our Petition: Defend a free and open Internet

Evan Thomas King

Two giant corporations – Google and Verizon — have just announced a joint plan that would kill the open Internet as we know it. They want to allow Internet Service Providers to charge a premium do deliver some data services faster than other content. They would place no restraint on data discrimination on the wireless Internet.

We can’t let two companies decide the rules for the Internet. The Federal Communications Commission must act to ensure that “Net Neutrality” is guaranteed for both the wireline and wireless Internet. Please sign our petition.

Google-Verizon deal prompts protest petitions

John M. Simpson

Several progress groups like MoveOn.org and Color of Change have launched online petition campaigns aimed at persuading Google to stick with its earlier espoused principles on “net neutrality” and not cut a a deal with telecommunications giant Verizon that would undermine an open Internet.

Google-Verizon talks bring denial and dismay

Margot Williams

Reports of a deal between Google and Verizon on “net neutrality’ are generating another public relations backlash against the Internet giant. The agreement, said the New York Times, “could allow Verizon to speed some online content to Internet users more quickly if the content’s creators are willing to pay for the privilege.

Google’s ties to CIA point up need for transparency

Margot Williams

The report in Wired last week about a high-tech firm funded jointly by Google and the CIA, Recorded Future, not only signaled a growing skepticism about the most popular Internet search engine. It also pointed up the dangers of the lack of transparency poses for Google.

Fortune says the “search party” is over for Google

John M. Simpson

Google has a stranglehold on search with 65 percent of the U.S. market — and even more in some other countries — but writing in Fortune magazine, Michael C. Copeland, says the Internet giant needs to find new sources of revenue or lose its status as a growth company.

Is Apps for Government Ready for Prime Time?

Margot Williams

Google received U.S. government security certification for its Apps for Government products on this week, a milestone for the search giant whose quest for government cloud computing contracts has been marred by its failure to meet deadlines for converting the City of Los Angeles email system.

You can take action now…

Evan Thomas King

We need your help. Sign our petition and demand that Google comes clean about the Wi-Spy scandal. Demand that Congress hold hearings immediately into the question of why Google thinks it’s OK to gather our private data and what they plan on doing with it. Google must also explain its relationship with the National Security Agency.

Liveblog: Wrapping up the Senate privacy hearing

Khan Shoieb

The three-hour hearing on Online Consumer Privacy has just come to a close, but unfortunately nothing substantive has emerged. Senators asked the two panels questions that were fed to them by their staff, and, when responses came from Google & Facebook that were conciliatory-sounding enough, the Senators refused, or perhaps more likely did not know how, to ask follow-up questions that might have actually taken us somewhere.