We need your help. Sign our petition and demand that Google comes clean about the Wi-Spy scandal. Demand that Congress hold hearings immediately into the question of why Google thinks it’s OK to gather our private data and what they plan on doing with it. Google must also explain its relationship with the National Security Agency.
News Clipping
Web consumers are concerned about Google’s collection of data over wireless networks, but still give the search engine and Web services provider a favorable rating of 74 percent. That’s the latest from a poll conducted by Google watchers Consumer Watchdog and Grove Insight, which also found citizens are concerned about their privacy.
News Clipping
Google has also come under scrutiny from Consumer Watchdog, which has said that the Energy and Commerce Committee must conduct hearings into Google privacy violations, with information coming to light about Google’s classified contracts with the US government. Consumer Watchdog suggests that Google has been fibbing.
Blog Post
The three-hour hearing on Online Consumer Privacy has just come to a close, but unfortunately nothing substantive has emerged. Senators asked the two panels questions that were fed to them by their staff, and, when responses came from Google & Facebook that were conciliatory-sounding enough, the Senators refused, or perhaps more likely did not know how, to ask follow-up questions that might have actually taken us somewhere.
Blog Post
Google Privacy Engineering Lead Dr. Alma Whitten told the Committee that the company was “conducting investigations” into why its Street View cars gathered communications from home WiFi networks.
Blog Post
Federal Trade Commission Chairman Jon Leibowitz endorsed an opt-in framework for privacy policies on the internet over an opt-out one in response to a question by Chairman John D. Rockefeller IV (D-WV). Federal Trade Commission Chairman Jon Leibowitz endorsed an opt-in framework for privacy policies on the internet over an opt-out one in response to a question by Chairman John D. Rockefeller IV (D-WV).
Press Release
Americans Favor Broad Range Of Online Privacy Protections for Consumers
SANTA MONICA, CA — A significant majority of Americans are troubled by recent revelations that Google’s Street View cars gathered communications from home WiFi networks, and they want stronger legal protection to preserve their online privacy, according to a national opinion poll released today by Consumer Watchdog.
News Clipping
At the hearing, a consumer watchdog testified that he believed the White House was too cozy with Google, and the company’s lobbying interests. “I do think that Google specifically has perhaps too close a relationship with the government,” said John Simpson, director of the Stem Cell Project. “I think Mr. McLaughlin’s appointment is one of those ties that are inappropriate.”
Blog Post
Consumer Watchdog’s John M. Simpson testified at a hearing yesterday on federal agency use of Web 2.0 technology, but the hearing got off to a rocky start when Ranking Member Patrick McHenry (R-NC) opted for a procedural gimmick and even introduced a motion to adjourn the hearing before the witnesses were able to testify.
News Clipping
“Is there some relationship between Google and the NSA (National Security Agency)?” asked Jamie Court, president of Consumer Watchdog, a nonprofit consumer advocacy group. “Was this data shared with intelligence agencies in America? It’s a question. We just want a straight answer.”
