John M. Simpson

WASHINGTON — Consumer Watchdog today welcomed the European Union’s antitrust investigation of Google and reiterated its call for the the U.S. Justice Department to launch its own investigation of the Internet giant.

CONTACT: Jeff Chester, Center for digital Democracy, [email protected], 202-494-7100; Ed Mierzwinski, U.S. PIRG, [email protected], 202-546-9707, ext .314; Pam Dixon, World Privacy Forum, [email protected], 760-470-2000; John Simpson, Consumer Watchdog, [email protected], 310-392-7041

SANTA MONICA, CA – Consumer Watchdog today asked the House Energy and Commerce Committee to hold hearings into Google’s Wi-Spying because a ranking employee of the Internet giant gave testimony that contradicted known facts about the company’s massive privacy invasion.
 

People who worry about online privacy and the intrusive practices of Internet companies like Google and Facebook are trying to figure out the impact of the election.  One victim of the Republican juggernaut was a key Internet policy player, Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va.

Google can to take one simple step to show that it cares about consumers' privacy. The Internet giant simply needs to appoint a Chief Privacy Officer.

Instead, in it's latest bit of PR spin Google as it tried to deal with the fallout from the Wi-Spy scandal, the company has muddied the water with an executive structure that virtually assures to confuse and will ultimately fail.

SANTA MONICA, CA — Consumer Watchdog today praised a coalition of state attorneys general led by Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal for continuing an investigation into Google’s Wi-Spying scandal in the wake of the Federal Trade Commission halting its probe earlier this week.

In announcing the state plans Blumenthal said:

SANTA MONICA, CA -- The Federal Trade Commission’s two-page letter ending its probe of the Google Wi-Spy scandal is premature and wrong, Consumer Watchdog said today, and leaves the American public with no official full account of the Internet giant’s repeated invasions of consumer privacy.

The FTC’s failure to act makes it even more important for Congress to hold hearings on Google’s Wi-Spying, in which the company’s Street View cars gathered communications from private Wi-Fi networks in 30 countries around the word.

Google Inc. has dodged $3.1 billion in taxes in the last three years, reports Jesse Drucker of Bloomberg, giving new meaning to CEO Eric Schmidt's recent comment to analysts: "We love cash."