Inside Google

Frequent Google critic Consumer Watchdog wrote to the White House Counsel on Friday arguing that President Obama and other administration officials must distance themselves from Google during pending federal investigations of the search giant.

A consumer group says the White House must distance itself from Google while the company is the subject of a federal antitrust investigation.

Google “pretty clearly is using its dominant position to its own advantage,” said John Simpson, spokesman for Consumer Watchdog, a nonprofit advocacy organization that has called for an investigation into Google’s practices for the past two years.

Consumer Watchdog is telling the White House that its cozy relationship with Google is inappropriate, given ongoing reviews by both the FTC and the Department of Justice.

Consumer Watchdog has been clamoring for Schmidt’s sworn testimony before Congress for over a year, ever since Germany caught Google harvesting private Wi-Fi data from unsecured Wi-Fi networks in homes and businesses across the globe. Google had dispatched fleets of specially equipped cars through city streets in 30-plus nations to gather this data.

“They’re somewhat disingenuous when they say we’re trying to provide a neutral search and all we care about is our users,” said John Simpson at Consumer Watchdog. “What they really care about is selling their users to advertisers. That’s how they make their money.”

WASHINGTON, DC — Consumer Watchdog has asked the White House Counsel to rule that President Obama and other members of the Administration must distance themselves from Google while the company is the target of serious federal investigations, including a criminal probe into allegations the search giant profited from selling online ads to illegal pharmacies.

Since April when Bloomberg News reported that the Federal Trade Commission was contemplating a full-blown antitrust investigation of Google, people who follow the Internet giant have been waiting for the other shoe to drop. It did on Thursday with the report in the Wall Street Journal that the five-member Commission is about to serve Google with civil subpoenas — known as Civil Investigative Demands — about its business practices.

The American Consumer Institute and Consumer Watchdog, a frequent Google critic, also applauded a potential antitrust probe of Google. “The time for an antitrust probe is long past due, and I’m optimistic the FTC investigation will lead to necessary remedies that will ensure competition in the market,” Consumer Watchdog’s John Simpson said.

As John M. Simpson, director of Consumer Watchdog’s Privacy Project, asked, “How is it that Eric Schmidt has the time to hobnob at a gala White House State Dinner for German Chancellor Angela Merkel, but cannot find time to answer important questions from a Senate committee. What are Page and Schmidt afraid of? What do they have to hide?” Good questions. Someone should subpoena them to find out the answers.