Archive | Tag: Privacy

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Google’s efforts to ingratiate itself with Republicans in the Congress with campaign contributions may not prevent the new House majority from making “trouble” for the search engine, according to a Capitol Hill weekly. “Saddled with the perception that it is a darling of the Obama administration, Google may have it tough with Republicans,” says The Hill. Google’s abandonment of net neutrality in favor of a more laissez faire approach favored by Verizon and other telecommunication companies eager to create a two-tiered Internet has gained the Internet giant no favor from Republicans. Instead, House Republicans are focusing on Google’s Achilles Heel: privacy.

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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.

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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.

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“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.

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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.

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David Vladeck, head of the bureau of consumer protection at the FTC, told attendees at Consumer Watchdog’s Future of Online Consumer Protections conference that the agency plans to release the report later this morning that will lay bare the FTC’s commitment to giving U.S. consumers greater choice when it comes to opting out of online tracking. Vladeck declined to get into specifics for fear of upstaging his boss later in the day, but said “we need to reduce the burden on consumers” to monitor how companies are tracking their activities on the Internet for advertising purposes.

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