Consumer Watchdog: Fighting Corporateering: Fighting Corporateering - Action 6: Ask Google To Protect Your Privacy

NEW ACTION & NEW VIDEO:
ASK GOOGLE TO PROTECT YOUR PRIVACY.

PRIVACY VIDEO #2: This video illustrates the
problems with Gmail and autosave.

Use the form below to ask Google's board of directors to add important security measures to GMail and agree to basic privacy rights for all Web users.

Read our new letter to Congress, our recent letter to Google's founders, and an earlier letter to the Justice Department.

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Subject: Ask Google To Protect Your Privacy

Dear Google Board of Directors:

Last month, Consumer Watchdog and several thousand internet users asked Google to take steps to make your products and services more secure and to add important and easy-to-use privacy protections.  You still have not made the changes, or even provided a written response.

At the same time, new privacy and security flaws in your products have come to light, showing that GMail users’ draft e-mails are being sent along unsecure lines to Google servers even before a user hits the send button.  The fact that your e-mail service does not default to a secure system that protects the contents of a user’s e-mail, let alone their drafts, is astonishing.  We hope you will immediately change GMail to protect the content of users’ e-mails when it is transmitted to your servers.  At the very least, you should prominently display a “security” option on every GMail page, so users can clearly and easily protect their privacy when they use your product.

As many users wrote you last month, Google, as the leading Internet technology company in America, should agree to basic privacy rights for its users. In addition to providing more security and privacy for GMail users, we reiterate the important changes to Chrome and Google's other products and websites that are essential.

(1.) Google should place a single prominent button on the main Chrome interface that can't be hidden or removed and that allows a user to enter Incognito mode instantly without interrupting the user experience. Once in Incognito mode, the application should assume we want to stay incognito, treating Incognito as a default preference once a user has selected it.

(2) Google should provide clear disclosure on the Google search engine home pages so that users can easily prevent communication with Google before pressing the search button or affirmatively requesting an action. This could be an extension of an omni-present "Incognito mode" button. This disclosure needs to be made clear throughout all the Google applications including GMail, Google Talk, and the Google Toolbar. This disclosure needs to be more than a confusing warning a few clicks away. It should be a convenient, actionable feature so the user can exercise informed choice.

(3.) Incognito should have the full meaning the word implies when users opt for it. Incognito mode should default to SSL  (Secure Sockets Layer) connections, provide an automatic IP anonymizing service, enforce a no-log policy on all Google servers including Google Analytics, as well as disable auto-saving, suggestions, and all other feature that use asynchronous event handlers other than button and link click. Incognito should disable all external calls to desktop applications and plug-ins whose applications fail to meet equivalent standards.

Google founders have articulated their commitment to protecting their users’ privacy rights recently. While these innovative pioneers are still in control of the company, it is imperative that Google pioneer new privacy rules that others will follow. You must take action immediately before less altruistic people and institutions come to control the company and its holdings.

Sincerely,

Your name

This letter will be sent to the following individual(s):

Sergey Brin, Google Board Member
John Doerr, Google Board Member
Arthur Levinson, Google Board Member
Ann Mather, Google Board Member
Paul S. Otellini, Google Board Member
Larry Page, Google Board Member
Eric Schmidt, Google Chairman & CEO
Ram Shriram, Google Board Member
Shirley M. Tilghman, Google Board Member

MORE INFORMATION:

Before the introduction of Google's new Web browser, Chrome, the company was already the the world leader in search and web analytics. Its data storage and tracking of browsing habits and search results raised huge privacy concerns, but Google was essentially on the outside looking in.

But with Chrome’s release, Google is now also on the inside sending information out. With this Chrome software inside individuals’ computers, Google’s role as sender and receiver of data has become uniquely powerful and threatening to the privacy of users.

Google's "Big Brother" Approach To Online Computing

Use the form above to ask Google's board of directors to agree to basic privacy rights for all web users.

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PRIVACY VIDEO #1: This video shows how Google Chrome doesn't protect your privacy.

TO VIEW THIS VIDEO AT FULL-SIZE, CLICK HERE.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt Responds to Consumer Watchdog

ABC-7: Google's Gmail & Chrome Pose Serious Privacy Risks

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NEW ACTION & NEW VIDEO:ASK GOOGLE TO PROTECT YOUR PRIVACY.

Message:

Actions

Forward This Page To A Friend

PRIVACY VIDEO #1: This video shows how Google Chrome doesn't protect your privacy.

TO VIEW THIS VIDEO AT FULL-SIZE, CLICK HERE.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt Responds to Consumer Watchdog

ABC-7: Google's Gmail & Chrome Pose Serious Privacy Risks

NEW ACTION & NEW VIDEO:
ASK GOOGLE TO PROTECT YOUR PRIVACY.