News Clipping
Every month, Simpson comes to Washington to meet with staff on the Hill and regulatory agencies, journalists and corporate lobbyists. Simpson said he met last week with Jim Tierney, chief of the networks and technology section of the antitrust division of the Justice Department, and staffers about his petition for a broad investigation. Last year, he testified before Congress about privacy and competition concerns in Google’s book settlement.
Blog Post
Government data protection authorities in Germany and the UK are questioning the collection of information on individual WiFI networks by Google’s Street View cars traversing their local streets.
Blog Post
In a letter to Google CEO Eric Schmidt, the “unprecedented” coalition of privacy czars from Europe, Canada and Israel described the surprise conversion of Google’s private email service to a public social networking service without informing users as a violation of “the fundamental principle that individuals should be able to control the use of their personal information.”
Blog Post
Google
continues to demonstrate that when comes to a commitment to openness and transparency the Internet
giant is really talking about holding others to that standard,
certainly not itself.
Blog Post
It’s not surprising that Google wants clout in Washington and is willing to spend big bucks to ensure that its corporate voice is heard. What surprised me, though, is the…
Blog Post
Google is crowing about a decision from the European Court of Justice Tuesday that says it has
the legal right to continue exploiting other people’s good names in its
quest to pile up more cash.
Blog Post
Google
stopped self-censoring its Chinese search engine, Google.cn, on Monday and
redirected that site’s visitors to Google.com.hk, its site based in Hong Kong.
As part of the move Google starting making search results on the Hong
Kong site available in simplified Chinese characters, which are used in the
People’s Republic of China.
News Clipping
NEW YORK, NY — Google confronted a barrage of criticism from opponents of its proposed digital book settlement Thursday as the Internet search giant tried to persuade a federal judge to approve a deal that would allow it to create the world’s largest online library. Some consumer groups warned Thursday that the company that preaches not to be evil could suffer from eroding trust. "They are part of this Silicon Valley culture which says ‘don’t ask for
permission because you can always ask for forgiveness,’ " said John
Simpson, head of the nonprofit group Consumer Watchdog. "The problem is
that they are starting now to be so big and so ambitious that some of
the things they are trying to do now are overreaching in a way that
will very likely tarnish their brand."
Blog Post
U.S. Judge Denny Chin began Thursday’s marathon Fairness Hearing in the Google Books case by ending the suspense. "I’m not going to rule today," he said. But sitting in the courtroom observing the more than four-hour long
hearing, the questions Judge Chin asked left me believing that the
objections to the deal raised by groups like Consumer Watchdog have
made a strong impression on him.
Press Release
NEW YORK, NY — Attorneys for Consumer Watchdog will appear in a federal
court today to urge Judge Deny Chinn to reject the revised Google Books
settlement because it remains anticompetitive and violates both U.S.
and international law.
