Inside Google

“The World Wide Web is in danger,” says Tim Berners-Lee, the computer scientist who invented the ubiquitous http://www protocol—and part of the threat comes from Mountain View. “Some of [the Web’s] most successful inhabitants have begun to chip away at its principles,” he writes in a piece entitled “Long Live the Web” appearing in the most recent issue of Scientific American.

Advertisers complain the Internet Explorer browser tool will hinder their ability to support free news, entertainment and other online content. Less than a week after federal regulators proposed giving web users a “do-not-track” option against online advertisers, Microsoft announced that it will add its own tracking protection mechanism in the next version of Internet Explorer […]

SANTA MONICA, CA — Consumer Watchdog welcomed Microsoft’s announcement today that the company will offer “Tracking Protection” next year, but said robust “Do Not Track Me” legislation still must be passed by Congress.

Reback says it’s no secret that Microsoft was a member of the Open Book Alliance, a group formed to challenge Google over book authors’ rights. Other members of that alliance included Amazon, Yahoo, the American Society of Journalists and Authors, the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses, the Internet Archive, the National Writers Union, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Small Press Distribution and the Special Libraries Association.

A House subcommittee held its last hearing of the 111th Congress yesterday to talk about whether legislation creating a “Do Not Track Me” mechanism is needed to protect consumers’ privacy on the internet.

Jamie Court, chief spokesman John Simpson, Washington coordinator Carmen Balber, and social-media strategist Josh Nuni are planning the Future of Online Consumer Protections conference, which was taking place Wednesday amid the Federal Trade Commission’s release of a report that threw the government’s weight behind a “Do Not Track” list for the Internet: a controversial sentiment among companies that make their money advertising on the Web. They’ve been handed an early Christmas present courtesy of the European Commission, which chose to announce its decision to formally investigate Google on the eve of Consumer Watchdog’s conference as Simpson almost gleefully fields calls from reporters asking for reaction to the investigation.

At a Consumer Watchdog event Wednesday, the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection proposed a new “Do Not Track” tool to curb privacy concerns over behaviorial advertising. The tool would be akin to the “Do Not Call” registry created in the early aughts which enabled the public to block the surging (and annoying) amount of telemarketers, Politico reports [1]. “Do Not Track” would work within browsers such as Internet Explorer and Firefox, but would require an act of Congress to pass.

WASHINGTON DC — The Federal Trade Commission repeated its support today for a “Do Not Track Me” mechanism to protect consumer online privacy and Consumer Watchdog called on Congress to pass legislation necessary to implement the safeguard.

“You may well see something soon from the U.S. agencies, but I can’t promise anything,” said Melanie Sabo, Assistant Director for Anticompetitive Practices at the FTC’s Bureau of Competition. Speaking at a Consumer Watchdog conference called “The Future of Online Consumer Protection,” Sabo said her comments reflect her own views and not those of the FTC. The conference, held in Washington, D.C., was webcast over the Internet.

Gary Reback, an attorney with Carr & Ferrell and a prominent figure in the antitrust trials involving Microsoft, told attendees at Consumer Watchdog’s Future of Online Consumer Protections conference here that the European case, built off complaints by a comparison shopping engine, could demonstrate that Google has improperly penalized specialty search engines in its quest to maintain its leading search engine market share. The refrain is a familiar one among Google critics: that Google’s Universal Search unfairly promotes its own content over that of competitors.