Blog Post
Regulators on both sides of the Atlantic have cleared Google’s $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility, but are vowing to keep a close eye on the Internet giant’s behavior after the deal goes through.
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The latest public letter was penned by Consumer Watchdog’s Privacy Project Director, John M. Simpson, and was addressed to the House’s subcommittee Chair Mary Bono Mack (R-CA) and Ranking Member G.K Butterfield, (D-NC). It starts: “I am writing on behalf of Consumer Watchdog to urge you to call Google’s CEO Larry Page to testify before your committee to explain his company’s disingenuous statements about its supposed commitment to users’ privacy.”
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“If Google is allowed to dominate the mobile market it will result in higher prices for consumers and stifle innovation,” warned Consumer Watchdog’s John Simpson.
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“We welcome and support EPIC’s suit,” John Simpson, consumer advocate at Consumer Watchdog, told the E-Commerce Times. “We called on the FTC to determine whether Google’s arrogant, unilateral action violated the Buzz consent agreement,” Simpson continued. “I think it’s clear that it does.”
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In a Jan. 24 article in USA Today, Consumer Watchdog spokesman John Simpson criticized the way Facebook is handling the switch to Timeline. Including online giant Google in his comments, he said such companies are showing “a complete disregard for their users’ interests and concerns” and taking “an uncommonly arrogant approach not usually seen in business, where the companies believe they can do whatever they want with our data, whenever and however they want to do it.”
Press Release
SANTA MONICA, CA – Consumer Watchdog today praised European data protection authorities for asking Google to delay implementation of its new privacy and data policies and said the U.S. Federal Trade Commission should determine whether the new policies violate the terms of Google’s consent agreement with the commission.
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The law would allow Netflix and other providers to share movie titles not only with social-media outlets such as Facebook, but also with third-party partners. Privacy advocates hate the proposal. “It is a horrible idea,” Consumer Watchdog’s John M. Simpson told TechNewsWorld.
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“Your investigation into Google’s practices that affect millions of Americans should be public,” John M. Simpson, director of Consumer Watchdog’s privacy project, wrote in this letter to Mack. “There is a substantial irony in a secret briefing from a company that claims its mission is to organize the world’s information and make it more accessible.”
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Consumer Watchdog’s John Simpson points out that personalized advertisements targeted directly to a specific user, based on user-collected information, can be “a substantial amount” more lucrative than just an anonymous ad. And with all the information Google can collect about your interests from your searches, your Google Docs, and your favorite YouTube videos, they can figure out pretty specifically what ads they should show you. “They are positioning this as streamlining privacy,” Simpson says. “But that’s just PR. It’s all about better targeting for advertisers.”
Press Release
SANTA MONICA, CA – Consumer Watchdog today called for a Congressional briefing about Google’s new privacy and data policies to be open to the public and said a closed door-session with the lawmakers demonstrated Google executive’s “hypocrisy.”
