Inside Google

The Commerce Department paper calls for an online privacy bill of rights and codes of conduct for Internet companies, with enforcement by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. But several privacy groups questioned whether the codes of conduct would be effective because of the paper’s suggestion that affected companies help write them. The policy recommendations in the report are an “early Christmas gift to the data collection industry,” said John Simpson, consumer advocate with Consumer Watchdog.

John Simpson, consumer advocate at Consumer Watchdog, said the report starts off on the wrong foot with its very title – ‘Commercial Data Privacy and Innovation in the Internet Economy: A Dynamic Policy Framework.’ “They talk about commercial data privacy,” Simpson said. “What we should be talking about is consumers’ data and their right to privacy, not a business commodity. This is all about easing things for businesses. It’s in some sense I think an early Christmas gift to the data collection industry from the Obama administration.”

Consumer groups including Consumer Watchdog and the Center for Digital Democracy, both based in Washington, have raised concerns about how Internet marketing companies compile personal information to target online users with advertising. The FTC said in a privacy report released Dec. 1 that data collection on the Web is sometimes done “in an irresponsible or even reckless manner.”

WASHINGTON, DC — The Commerce Department’s “Green Paper” about online privacy is an industry friendly document that would perpetuate current failed practices that give companies, not consumers, control of consumer data, Consumer Watchdog said today.

Consumer Watchdog’s Carmen Balber discusses Internet privacy and the need for an online “Do Not Track Me” list.

Privacy advocates praised the move, saying that tracking has gotten out of hand. “Consumers have a right to know what information is gathered about them, how it is used and whether it is gathered at all,” says John M. Simpson, spokesman for the advocacy group Consumer Watchdog.

“Connecticut sounds very serious about doing something, doing something more than just a slap on the wrist,” said John Simpson of Consumer Watchdog, an advocacy group that has asked for congressional hearings on the issue. Blumenthal “is going to be a junior senator, but he may carry some of this with him to Washington. Who knows, he might be the guy who gets some kind of a hearing” in Congress.

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who is leading a multi-state probe into Google’s Wi-Spying activity is demanding the Internet giant turn over the data that its Street View cars improperly gathered from wireless networks in the state.

“We do not need a technological arms race,” said John M. Simpson, director of CW’s Inside Google project, “A simple ‘Do Not Track Me’ message sent from a browser that advertisers would be required by law to honor would do that.”

Google’s efforts to ingratiate itself with Republicans in the Congress with campaign contributions may not prevent the new House majority from making “trouble” for the search engine, according to a Capitol Hill weekly. “Saddled with the perception that it is a darling of the Obama administration, Google may have it tough with Republicans,” says The Hill. Google’s abandonment of net neutrality in favor of a more laissez faire approach favored by Verizon and other telecommunication companies eager to create a two-tiered Internet has gained the Internet giant no favor from Republicans. Instead, House Republicans are focusing on Google’s Achilles Heel: privacy.