Consumer Watchdog spokesman John Simpson said: “Google continues to push the envelope as far as it can and increasingly intrudes in our lives without asking permission. How long will it be before the Internet giant deploys teams with handheld cameras to photograph places where the trikes can’t go?”
Continue reading...Thursday, January 27, 2011
Consumer Watchdog receives no funding from Microsoft or any other competitor of Google, John Simpson, consumer advocate with the group, told PC World. “We don't have any relationship with Microsoft at all … We don't take any of their money,” he said. Simpson said the group has decided to focus on Google’s privacy practices because the company’s services serve as a gateway to the Internet for many people. If the group can push Google, “without a doubt the dominant Internet company,” to change its privacy practices, other companies will follow suit, he said.
Continue reading...Wednesday, January 26, 2011
As Eric Schmidt plans his transition from Google's chief executive into a role has a greater focus on government outreach, ardent Google critic and privacy advocate Consumer Watchdog has found a not-so-friendly way to welcome him to Washington.
Continue reading...Wednesday, January 26, 2011
WASHINGTON, DC – Consumer Watchdog’s new animated satire, “Mr. Schmidt Goes to Washington,” debuted today on the streets of Washington, DC, to make the case for why Congress should call Google CEO Eric Schmidt to testify under oath about the Wi-Spy scandal and other online privacy issues. The group also said the company’s close relationship with the US government should be probed.
Continue reading...Friday, December 3, 2010
Jamie Court, chief spokesman John Simpson, Washington coordinator Carmen Balber, and social-media strategist Josh Nuni are planning the Future of Online Consumer Protections conference, which was taking place Wednesday amid the Federal Trade Commission's release of a report that threw the government's weight behind a "Do Not Track" list for the Internet: a controversial sentiment among companies that make their money advertising on the Web. They've been handed an early Christmas present courtesy of the European Commission, which chose to announce its decision to formally investigate Google on the eve of Consumer Watchdog's conference as Simpson almost gleefully fields calls from reporters asking for reaction to the investigation.
Continue reading...Thursday, October 28, 2010
"The White House deputy chief technology officer, Andrew McLaughlin, was formerly Google's head of government affairs, and [Google CEO] Eric Schmidt was on a panel of economic advisors for President Obama's transition team," John Simpson, director of Consumer Watchdog's Inside Google project, told the E-Commerce Times. "If you asked me if I was surprised that that type of clout and influence could pay off for Google in this case, I would say 'no,'" Simpson continued. "Do I have proof that it did? Again, I would have to say 'no.'"
Continue reading...Thursday, October 28, 2010
Leading the call for Congressional oversight is John M. Simpson, managing director of the non-profit advocacy group Consumer Watchdog. Simpson calls this two-page letter the FTC sent to Google on Wednesday "premature and wrong. "
Continue reading...Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Consumer Watchdog, an advocacy group, called the F.T.C.’s decision “premature and wrong. Once again, Google, with its myriad of government connections, gets a free pass,” John M. Simpson, director of the group’s Inside Google Project, said in a statement.
Continue reading...Friday, October 22, 2010
SANTA MONICA, CA -- Consumer Watchdog welcomed three new steps Google said it is implementing to protect consumers’ privacy in response to the Wi-Spying scandal, but challenged the Internet giant to prove the measures are more than a public relations ploy.
Continue reading...Thursday, September 30, 2010
The advocacy group Consumer Watchdog is broadcasting Jumbotron video ads all this week in the heart of New York's Times Square to mock Google as a big chicken for dodging a privacy debate.
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Tuesday, March 1, 2011
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