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An official with Consumer Watchdog, which has been a frequent and sharp critic of Google, said despite the speculation, the organization does not receive funding from the search engine’s competitors — Microsoft, Yahoo or Facebook. “I don’t know why they would have speculated about that,” said John M. Simpson, privacy director for Consumer Watchdog. “They could have just called and asked.”
Press Release
SANTA MONICA, CA – Consumer Watchdog today filed a Freedom Of Information Act Request with the Federal Communications Commission seeking all documents related to the Commission’s investigation of the Google Wi-Spy scandal.
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The new revelations have prompted Consumer Watchdog, a Washington-based advocacy group, to call for a hearing by the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law, which is chaired by Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.).
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A letter written by John Simpson, privacy project director for the advocacy group Consumer Watchdog on the 30th of April spoke on this subject. It was addressed to Senator Al Franken, a proponent of getting Google to reveal what they’d actually collected here before, saying that wished Franken to grant Engineer Doe immunity from prosecution. If indeed the engineer at hand were granted immunity, he would be much more likely to testify in the case which was, as Simpson claims, “the largest wiretapping effort in history.” Simpson wanted Franken and the rest of the world to know the dangers in this situation.
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In a letter April 30, John Simpson, privacy project director for the advocacy group Consumer Watchdog, urged Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law, to conduct hearings into “the Google Wi-Spy incident that will finally get to the bottom of what was the largest wiretapping effort in history.” Simpson urged Franken to grant Engineer Doe immunity from prosecution so that he can testify and to call Google CEO Larry Page to testify.
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Google critic Consumer Watchdog said the company’s increased lobbying expenses show it has bought into the “corrupt Washington power game. “Google claims its motto is, ‘don’t be evil,’ but the amount of cash they are throwing around demonstrates an astounding cynicism,” John Simpson, Consumer Watchdog’s Privacy Project director, said in an email.
Press Release
Urges ‘Engineer Doe’ Be Given Immunity For Testifying About His Role
SANTA MONICA, CA – Consumer Watchdog today called for a Senate hearing into the Google Wi-Spy scandal and urged that a key figure known in a Federal Communications Commission report as “Engineer Doe” be granted immunity from prosecution in return for his testimony.
Press Release
Internet Giant’s Expenses Soar 240 Percent, Topping $5.03 Million In 1st Quarter
WASHINGTON DC — Google continues to pump record amounts into its effort to influence federal legislators and policymakers, spending $5.03 million on lobbying in the first quarter of 2012, a 240 percent increase from the same quarter a year ago, according to new disclosures filed with the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives.
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According to a report by ProPublica, the FCC legally could have fined Google up to $337,500. Mashable has contacted the FCC for comment on how the fees were calculated and will update this article with any response.
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John Simpson, director of the Privacy Project at the Consumer Watchdog group, said he was pleased the FCC derided Google “for its blatantly obstructionist violations, but $25,000 is chump change to an Internet giant like Google. By willfully violating the Commission’s orders, Google has managed to continue to hide the truth about Wi-Spy. Google wants everyone else’s information to be accessible, but in a demonstration of remarkable hypocrisy, stonewalls and keeps everything about itself secret.”
