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Google’s grand experiment in photographing the world’s places for Google Maps has taken its “street view” cameras off-road with new hi-tech tricycles equipped with 360 degree view cameras to photograph the back roads, parks, college paths and inner sanctums of our world. The engineer’s latest design raises the question: What will Google be capturing on its back-road tour that people don’t want seen?
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Concerned with the way Google was gathering social security numbers from children in connection with its “Doodle 4 Google” contest, I wrote to Reps. Ed Markey, D-MA, and Joe Barton, R-TX, calling for hearings in to the incident as well as a look at the Google Wi-Spy scandal. I sent the letter via email around noon today and later this afternoon in a joint statement the co-chairmen of the House Bi-Partisan Privacy Caucus agreed to schedule a hearing.
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When an issue becomes the topic of a comic strip, you know it’s on the nation’s agenda. Online privacy crossed that threshold today in Scott Adams’ Dilbert.
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Next week will be a busy one in Washington for online privacy as at least two bills are expected to be introduced in the House. Rep. Jackie Speier, D-CA, plans to offer a Do Not Track legislation and Rep. Bobby Rush, D- Il, is expected to re-introduce his online privacy bill. There’s activity outside Congress as well.
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Google is blasting rival Microsoft for copying its search engine results for use on Microsoft’s search service, Bing. Microsoft claims they did nothing wrong and that Google engaged in “a spy-novelesque stunt.”
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The drive to create a “Do Not Track” mechanism to protect consumers’ online privacy as they surf the Web is gaining momentum. Companies like like Google, fearing the passage of necessary privacy laws, are scrambling to offer their versions on a voluntary basis.
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Despite a six-hour commute home on what should have been a 20 minute drive after Wednesday’s snowstorm, our mobile ad truck braved the streets again in this morning’s flurries so “Mr. Schmidt Goes to Washington” could crash a “World Privacy Day” event at Google’s lobby shop in DC.
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It’s been a tough week for Google as it faced legal challenges from around the world, the most prominent being that Department of Justice antitrust staff is preparing for the possibility of a suit to block the Internet giant’s acquisition of ITA.
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Google co-founder Larry Page’s recent purchase of an 187-foot, $45 million yacht is a classic case of “conspicuous consumption.” The term, coined by economist Thorstein Veblen, refers to “the waste of money and/or resources by people to display a higher status than others.”
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South Korean police said Thursday that Google broke the country’s privacy laws when its Street View cars gathered personal information from private Wi-Fi networks. Meanwhile, in the United States, a spokeswoman for Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen told me in a telephone call that the multi-state investigation into Wi-Spy is ongoing.
