Privacy

Who Would Pay $5,000 to Use Google? (You)

January 25, 2012  ·  Mark Reback

<p> New research finds people fork over $5,000 worth of personal information a year to Google in exchange for access to its “free services” such as Gmail and search. While many view this as a fair trade, privacy experts say the Internet giant’s latest plan to pool user data from its various sites make it less so.</p>

Consumers Oppose Google-Motorola Mobile Merger

January 25, 2012  ·  Mark Reback

<p> An American consumer advocacy group, Consumer Watchdog, wrote to Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia, on 24 January, to ask him to ban Google's proposed acquisition of Motorola Mobile (see separate article). "Google controls 95% of the mobile search market.</p> <p> There is evidence it is pressuring handset manufacturers to favour Google applications when using the Android operating system," reads the letter from John M. Simpson, the association's privacy project director.</p>

Q4 2011 Lobbying Report Shows Google Spending Skyrocketed

January 24, 2012  ·  Mark Reback

<p> Google spent nearly as much as AT&T and Comcast on lobbying in Q4 2011, according to quarterly federal lobbying reports available last Friday. Facebook and Netflix also accelerated their Washington spending as debate over online copyright issues intensified in the fourth quarter. Spectrum legislation, the recently dissolved AT&T/T-Mobile transaction and controversy over possible LightSquared GPS interference also drove communications industry lobbying in the fourth quarter, the disclosure reports showed.<br /> <br />

Google Tops as ‘Lord of the Lobbying’ with $10 Million in 2011

January 24, 2012  ·  Mark Reback

<p> Internet search engine giant Google has poured out $9.7 million on lobbying U.S. lawmakers and regulators in 2011, according to Google's latest bill in U.S. Senate Office of Public Records.</p> <p> It nearly doubles the expenditure of $5.2 million in 2010, due its entanglement in sensitive issues such as antitrust violation and online privacy.</p>

Spending Plus Online Clout Put Google In Lobbying Class of Its Own

January 24, 2012  ·  Mark Reback

<p> <span id="content_text">When Google <a href="http://www.nationaljournal.com/politics/websites-blackout-has-impact-on-capitol-hill-20120118">blacked out</a> its iconic logo last week in protest against antipiracy legislation, it got noticed. But new lobbying disclosures reveal that the search giant has much more than publicity in its Washington toolbox.</span></p>

Google Has Long Had Ability To Track You Across Its Services

January 24, 2012  ·  Mark Reback

<p> Google's controversial new privacy policy covers familiar territory for Peter Eckersley, the Electronic Frontier Foundation's respected Technology Projects Director.</p> <p> He says the search giant's disclosure that it will track what you do across all Google-owned services that you partake of -- on your PC and mobile devices -- comes across more like a confession than a bold new move.</p>

Google Overtakes Microsoft in Federal Lobbying Spending

January 24, 2012  ·  Mark Reback

<p> <b>Google vaulted over Microsoft in money paid out to lobby the federal government, paying $9.7 million in 2011, up from $5.2 million in all of 2010.</b></p> <p> Media and pundits like to point out the increasing parallels between Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Google, the Web application superpower that long ago passed the desktop software giant in online user engagement.</p> <p> Now Google has also surpassed Microsoft in another metric: spending to lobby the federal government for its various Web-related interests and concerns.</p>

Google Busted Steering Users, Antitrust Officials Should Act

January 23, 2012  ·  Jamie Court

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Consumer Watchdog Asks EU to Block Google, Motorola Deal

January 23, 2012  ·  Mark Reback

<p> A consumer group on Wednesday penned a letter to European regulators asking them to block the pending merger of Google and Motorola Mobility on anti-competitive grounds.</p> <p> “The Internet is too important to allow an unregulated monopolist to dominate it,” John M. Simpson, director of Consumer Watchdog’s Privacy Project, wrote to the EU’s competition commissioner, Joaquin Almunia.</p>

Consumer Watchdog Urges EU to Block Google’s Motorola Deal

January 23, 2012  ·  Mark Reback

<p> <strong>A United States consumer group has written to the European Commission asking it to block Google’s Motorola deal and to launch an investigation into the Internet…</strong></p> <p> A U.S. consumer advocacy group has written to the European Commission asking it to block Google’s deal to acquire Motorola and to launch an investigation into the Internet giant’s alleged anti-competitive behavior.</p>

Consumer Group Slams Fuel Economy Ratings

January 17, 2012  ·  Mark Reback

<p> Washington, D.C. – A U.S. consumer group is calling for the government to conduct fuel economy tests in-house, citing data showing that a Chevrolet Cruze Eco got 28 per cent better overall miles per gallon in real-world driving than a Hyundai Elantra, even though both have the same Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) combined mileage ratings.</p>

‘Friend’ or Foe?

January 16, 2012  ·  Mark Reback

<p> <strong>Big Brother isn't watching you. But Facebook might be.</strong><br /> <br /> The wildly popular social networking site - which now boasts 800 million users worldwide and 200 million in the United States alone - has become the go-to mode of connecting with friends, family and people you vaguely know without having to see them in person.</p>