Consumer Watchdog Group Goes After Google
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Privacy
Consumer Watchdog investigations and advocacy on data privacy, surveillance, AI, and your right to control your personal information.
Video Mocks Google’s Privacy Practices
Consumer Watchdog has launched a rather unique effort in its bid
to highlight its concerns over Google's privacy policies and to push
Congress to allow consumers to opt out of having their Web activities
tracked by online firms.
Taking the “Do Not Track Me” fight to Google in Times Square
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Consumer Watchdog is satirizing Google CEO Eric Schmidt in the most highly-trafficked
public square in the nation to make the public aware of how out of touch
Schmidt and Google are when it comes to our privacy rights and to make a
case for national privacy reform.
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Google facing close DOJ scrutiny on ITA
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Despite what the spinmeisters over at <a href="http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com/2010/08/update-on-our-ita-software-acquisition.html">Google's Public Policy Blog</a> would have you believe, the Internet giant is facing tough...</p>
Four House members blast Google-Verizon plan; call on FCC to act
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Four members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet, on Monday ...
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” Do Not Track Me” gains traction in Washington
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I'm just back from a sweltering week in Washington, DC, convinced
that those of us who care about protecting consumers' online privacy
have reason for optimism. There is growing interest in creating a "Do
Not Track...</p>
Smile! Aerial Images Being Used to Enforce Laws
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The
nonprofit group Consumer Watchdog is seeking to determine the extent of
the FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration's use of Google Earth in
its investigations, spokesman John M. Simpson said last week. Federal
contracting records reviewed by Consumer Watchdog show that the FBI has
spent more than $600,000 on Google Earth since 2007. The Drug
Enforcement Administration, meanwhile, has spent more than $67,000. Simpson
has called on Congress to investigate how U.S. law enforcement and
intelligence communities are using Google technologies. The group says
it has concerns that data could be used for racial profiling.
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3 On Your Side: DIRECTV Complaints
<p>The nation's largest satellite TV service is getting some static. Consumers have now logged more than 40,000 complaints against DIRECTV on the Better Business Bureau's website. DIRECTV offers promotions like five months free or $29.99 a month. But some customers complain they're then surprised when charged extra fees for leasing equipment, special features and programming <a class="iAs" href="http://cbs3.com/consumer/3.On.Your.2.1857748.html#" target="_blank" rel="noopener">packages</a>.
Google moves to profit from its “crown jewels” — your data
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A Wall Street Journal article this week details how Google is increasingly moving to maximize
profits from the vast amount of personal data it has amassed in its
global network of servers at the expense of consumers' privacy.
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Google Proposes Separate Rules for Wireless Web
Verizon Communications Inc. and Google Inc.
urged U.S. regulators to leave wireless Internet services outside most
policies that are designed to prevent carriers from making some websites
perform better than others.
Consumer Watchdog, a consumer group based in Santa Monica, said the
proposal "completely undermines the future of the Internet" because the
wireless use of the Web is gaining in popularity.
Anger Greets Google-Verizon Plan for Routing Web Traffic
<strong>Proposal Would Let Internet Providers Favor Some Services</strong><br />
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Smaller Internet companies wouldn't be able to keep pace.
"Ultimately, consumers would pay the costs for the premium delivery, or
worse, would never see the content of smaller companies," says John
Simpson, director of advocacy group Consumer Watchdog. "Google claims it
won't use premium channels for delivery, but not long ago they
professed to defend true net neutrality."
There’s no privacy in third world America
A big New York foundation once told me years ago that privacy is the last thing people in the developing world have to worry about. It was a nice way of saying no to funding for my consumer group's privacy project, but the line rang out to me with the recent exposures about big tech's privacy problems.