Inside Google

Google’s Economic Impact 2009 report (see Consumer Watchdog’s statement) released online and at a series of press events around the country on Tuesday, shows an off-key bias about our nation’s citizens.

Meanwhile, consumer advocacy group Consumer Watchdog on Wednesday urged state attorneys general to investigate whether the company broke wiretap, privacy and unfair business practices laws. The group also called on state authorities to demand that Google preserve all documents relating to its data-collection activities because they could be evidence in criminal or civil cases.

Consumer Watchdog today called on the state attorneys general to investigate Google’s WiSpy snooping in their respective states to determine what state laws were broken.

The report drew mixed reactions yesterday. The nonprofit Consumer Watchdog organization dismissed it as hype based on “cooked accounting” that counts benefits, but doesn’t consider the impact on some content providers and competitors who suffer from Google’s “monopolistic control of search.”

John Simpson, a researcher for the nonprofit Consumer Watchdog who was the first to raise questions about McLaughlin’s appointment to the White House, said Google’s bumbling intellectual persona in Washington is just an act.

The announcement drew an immediate response from a nonprofit consumer-advocacy organization, Consumer Watchdog. The group said Google’s motives in releasing the report were driven by “its attempts to quell worldwide outrage over the WiSpy scandal” and that this is “classic corporate PR spin to divert justified criticism.”

At least one vocal critic of the company said the report overstates Google’s contributions. The company didn’t generate this economic activity so much as facilitate it, said John Simpson of Consumer Watchdog. There were other businesses that connected companies with customers before Google was founded 12 years ago, and the report failed to take into account lost revenue and jobs within those industries, notably media and advertising, he said.

Consumer Watchdog said Google’s economic report relies on cooked accounting that only counts benefits while factoring in none of the costs Google places on society.

A great “smart paranoid’s guide to using Google” at Computerworld today takes you step by step through “down-and-dirty details on how to maintain your privacy while using Google’s myriad services.” It’s chock full of precautions, security tips and instructions on how to disengage from Google collections of  information about you. The guide takes you from […]

“This is what every big corporation does when they are under fire,” said John M. Simpson, consumer advocate with the nonpartisan, nonprofit group. “They divert attention from their wrongdoing and spin a story about their contributions.”