Privacy

Democracy At Work

July 31, 2015  ·  Liza Tucker

<p><img class=" alignright size-full wp-image-2881" alt="" class="right" src="https://consumerwatchdog.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/images_dtscp_logo_0.jpg" style="width: 121px; height: 90px; margin-left: 7px; margin-right: 7px; float: right;" width="121" height="90" />When the confirmation of California’s top toxics regulator was over, Senate President pro Tempore Kevin de Leon addressed the audience: “You saw democracy working…” But was this really democracy at work?</p>

Advertisers Say ‘Right To Be Forgotten’ Conflicts With Free Speech

July 31, 2015  ·  Mark Reback

<p>The Association of National Advertisers is urging the Federal Trade Commission to reject a "misguided" effort to create a "right to be forgotten" in the United States.</p> <p>"Allowing the Right to Be Forgotten in the United States would cause serious and undue harm to the public’s right to determine for itself what is important and relevant information," the ANA says in a letter to the FTC. "It would force search companies to edit the past under the supervision of federal regulators. This runs contrary to consumers’ interests."</p>

Advertisers: US ‘Right To Be Forgotten’ Would Be Legally ‘Baseless’

July 31, 2015  ·  Mark Reback

<p>U.S. Regulators would be violating the First Amendment if they were to force Google and other search engines to delist certain irrelevant search results at a user’s request, a major advertising trade group said Friday.  </p> <p>The Association of National Advertisers sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission urging it to “forcefully reject” a complaint from Consumer Watchdog, which requested that Google be required to allow Americans to have the “right to be forgotten.”</p>

Google Resists Broadening “Right To Be Forgotten”

July 31, 2015  ·  Mark Reback

<h2>Advertisers group backs Google, privacy advocates not so much</h2> <p>Not surprisingly, Google is resisting a demand that it broaden the "right to be forgotten" by censoring search results worldwide, saying that allowing one country to censor the Web worldwide would start a "race to the bottom."</p>

Ad Group Urges FTC To Reject Right To Be Forgotten In US

July 31, 2015  ·  Mark Reback

<section class="page"> <p style=""><span itemprop="articleBody text">The U.S. Federal Trade Commission should reject a privacy group’s push to extend the E.U.’s controversial right to be forgotten rules to the U.S. because such regulations would have a “sweeping” negative effect on many U.S. companies, a trade group said.</span></p>

Biggest Problem For Robot Cars May Be That People Don’t Want Them

July 29, 2015  ·  John M. Simpson

<p>Promoters of self-driving vehicles tout the supposed benefits the robot cars will bring such as improved road<img class=" alignright size-full wp-image-2879" alt="" src="https://consumerwatchdog.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/images_robocar2.jpg" style="width: 200px; height: 199px; float: right;" width="371" height="370" /> safety if all the technological challenges are solved.  They appear to assume adoption will be widespread once the robot technology is perfected.</p>

The Driverless Car Debate: How Safe Are Autonomous Vehicles?

July 28, 2015  ·  Mark Reback

<p>When it comes to the future of transportation, the first thing that comes to mind is the possibility of <a href="http://www.techtimes.com/articles/71023/20150722/terrafugia-debuts-tf-x-hybrid-electric-vehicle-drives-land-air.htm?exe=reporter" target="_blank" rel="noopener">flying cars</a>. <span class="spellchecker-word-highlight"><span class="spellchecker-word-highlight"><span class="spellchecker-word-highlight">It's</span></span></span> easy to imagine an urban utopia with vehicles that float through the air, swerving around buildings, reaching toward the heavens.</p>

Senator Calls For Investigation Of Apple’s Music Streaming Policies

July 23, 2015  ·  Mark Reback

<h2 itemprop="description">Licensing terms prohibit competing companies from letting consumers know of better music deals</h2> <div id="drr-container" itemprop="articleBody"> <p>Apple's licensing terms for competing music streaming services may be raising prices for consumers, a potential unfair competition issue that should be investigated, a U.S. senator alleged Wednesday.</p>

US Senator Wants Feds To Investigate Apple Over Music Streaming

July 23, 2015  ·  Mark Reback

<p><strong>Al Franken is particularly concerned about whether Apple has stymied competition in the music-streaming business by controlling its own application marketplace.</strong></p> <p style="">Apple's streaming-music service may have debuted only a few weeks ago, but already one senator is concerned that the iPhone maker could become a dominant, anticompetitive force.</p>

Consumer Group Is Sour On Apple

July 22, 2015  ·  Mark Reback

<p><strong><span class="brief">Watchdog warns FTC about streaming dominance</span></strong></p>

Apple Music Under Fire: FTC Investigation Reported, Consumer Group Complains

July 22, 2015  ·  Mark Reback

<p>Is Apple playing dirty when it comes to its new music-streaming service?</p>

Senator Urges Probe Of Apple’s Music Streaming Practices

July 22, 2015  ·  Mark Reback

<p><span id="articleText"><span class="focusParagraph">A U.S. senator wants two federal agencies to investigate whether <a class="vglnk" href="http://www.reuters.com/finance/stocks/overview?symbol=AAPL.O" rel="nofollow"><span>Apple </span><span>Inc</span></a> is breaking antitrust law in how it treats music services that compete with the streaming service it launched in June.</span></span></p>