Press Release
Santa Monica CA — The proposed 10-year partnership on Internet search
and search advertising between Microsoft and Yahoo! must be closely
scrutinized by the Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department
to ensure there are no antitrust violations and that user privacy is
guaranteed, Consumer Watchdog said today.
News Clipping
When the online advertising industry recently issued seven principles to protect consumer privacy, you could see the lines being drawn. John Simpson, consumer advocate for California-based nonprofit Consumer
Watchdog, doesn’t believe this industry will be able to regulate
itself. He believes opting in should be consumers’ choice, not the current
model where they have to work to opt out of having their Web-surfing
habits monitored. He says that if advertisers clearly explain their
programs and how that benefits customers, those users are likely to be
willing to be part of it.
News Clipping
Concerns are the same as with any outsourcing, remote data access, IT managers say.
Consumer Watchdog group said the Twitter incident raises the question
of whether "Google’s cloud as offered provides adequate safeguards."
Moving medical and health-related records, and information on domestic
and sexual assault and substance abuse to Google raises concerns over
how such sensitive data will be protected, the group wrote in a letter
addressed to City Council members. "Before jumping into the Google deal, the City Council needs to insist
on appropriate guarantees — for instance substantial financial
penalties in the event of any security breach," John Simpson, a
consumer advocate for the group wrote.
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News Clipping
A group critical of Google’s privacy practices got a jump on the search giant yesterday. Consumer Watchdog, which accuses Google of spying on users, sent out an
alert early yesterday claiming it had obtained a "confidential" and
"proprietary" document that the company had intended for lawmakers.
Blog Post
Google probably thought it was being subtle and sly. Just after
Consumer Watchdog obtained and released Google’s new "confidential"
lobbying document, Google posted the same document, stripped of its "confidential" and "proprietary" labels, as an example of its public transparency.
