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Why should iPhone and Android users have to worry about being spied on by their smart phones? Shouldn’t we be able to say no to some of California’s biggest companies, Google and Facebook, when they violate our privacy daily by tracking us online and collecting massive amounts of our private information without our explicit consent?
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SANTA MONICA, CA — Consumer Watchdog today said Google used deceptive and unfair trade practices in marketing its “cloud computing” services to government entities and asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate.
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Consumer Watchdog said in its statement that the problem with do-not-track at the browser level is that there’s no requirement on the web site to honor the do-not-track request.
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The measure (SB 761), introduced last month by California Sen. Alan Lowenthal, requires the state attorney general to issue regulations that would require Web companies to notify state residents about online data collection and allow them to opt out. The bill, sponsored by Consumer Watchdog, applies not only to so-called personally identifiable information like users’ names, but also to unique identifiers, such as customer numbers of IP addresses.
Press Release
SACRAMENTO, CA – For the first time in American history a privacy proposal to give people the right to stop collection of their personal information online has passed a legislative committee.
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SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Legislation proposed in California that would mandate a means for Web users to easily prevent websites from gathering their personal information is moving forward, despite intensive lobbying and opposition from some of the state’s largest Internet firms — including Facebook Inc. and Google Inc.
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President of Consumer Watchdog, Jamie Court, said there’s also concern that the information could fall into the wrong hands or be misused. “You search out of curiosity for ‘marijuana’ you don’t want to be followed by cannabis ads,” said Court. “You should have the right to not be tracked doing that search.”
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“Consumers should have the right to choose if their private information…is collected, analyzed and profiled by companies tracking activities online,” John Simpson of Consumer Watchdog said.
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A study by researchers at Intel Labs, Penn State and Duke University last year revealed that 15 of 30 popular Android apps send location data to advertisers — often without notifying users. “People don’t understand what’s going on with their data,” said John Simpson, director of consumer privacy at Consumer Watchdog. “It’s sort of being sucked up without their real knowledge.”
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“They’re trying to quell an understandable storm of concern,” said John Simpson, director of the privacy project at Consumer Watchdog, an advocacy group. But he added, “It sounds like they’re going to continue doing a lot of stuff that is potentially problematic.”
