Blog Post
As the WiSpy scandal unfolded last week CEO Eric Schmidt, speaking in England, tried to calm the furor by claiming “no harm, no foul.” This week it’s clear that despite the fondest hopes of those in the Googleplex, the firestorm won’t go away.
Blog Post
Google has announced that it is now offering privacy-friendly SSL encryption on its search engine, becoming the first major company to offer the protection. The company deserves credit and others who want to do more than pay lip service to privacy should immediately follow Google’s lead.
Blog Post
In the latest revelation in a seemingly never ending stream of privacy breaches by online companies, we now know that Facebook and MySpace have been sending consumers’ personal information to advertisers despite promises that they don’t share such data without consent.
Blog Post
Outrage continues to rise over Google’s “WiSpy” efforts that saw its Street View cars snoop on private WiFi networks as they roamed the streets of 30 countries over the last three years. Europeans contemplated criminal charges; U.S. lawmakers asked the Federal Trade Commission what it’s doing and a class action suit was filed in Oregon.
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Blog Post
Germany’s Consumer Affairs Minister Ilse Aigner blasted Google over the weekend for its “accidental” collection of personal data by Street View cars driving by the homes of citizens in Germany (and the U.S. and other countries all around the world).
Blog Post
Consumers worried about the data Google amasses about them as they use the Internet giant’s search engine have used a service called Scroogle.org. This week the nonprofit service was abruptly disrupted, prompting questions about whether Google deliberately targeted the operation.
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With the classic timing of those who want to downplay bad news, Google responded late Friday afternoon to a letter of complaint issued by ten countries last month about the misfired rollout of the Google Buzz social networking application when Google exposed Gmail users’ personal e-mail contacts to the online world without user consent.
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As we ready Inside Google, now in “Beta” mode, for its formal launch I’ve been checking various search engines to see where the site ranks. Today Google put me at number one.
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Librarians are calling for Americans to take charge of their privacy rights in a digital age during Choose Privacy Week May 2-8 at http://www.privacyrevolution.org/.
