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Online Privacy
News Story
5/15/2012
Posted by Mark Reback
NEW YORK, NY -- Some 900 million people like Facebook. But when they realize their private information is being bought and sold, some don't like it so much.
The question of privacy and the use of personal data is a key issue for Facebook as the booming social network prepares to list on Wall Street.
That is because the freewheeling world...
News Story
5/7/2012
Posted by Mark Reback
In February, Stanford researcher Jonathan Mayer discovered that Google had bypassed a key Safari browser privacy setting in order to install tracking cookies. By hiding a “web form” within an online ad, Google circumvented Safari’s default settings and violated users’ right to privacy. If the Safari user clicked the +1...
News Release
5/4/2012
Posted by John M. Simpson
SANTA MONICA, CA – The Federal Trade Commission appears ready to fine Google millions of dollars for hacking around privacy settings on iPhones and iPads. Consumer Watchdog filed a complaint in February with the FTC after Stanford Researcher Jonathan Mayer revealed what the Internet giant was doing.
Sara Forden of Bloomberg News...
News Release
5/2/2012
Posted by John M. Simpson
SANTA MONICA, CA – Consumer Watchdog today filed a Freedom Of Information Act Request with the Federal Communications Commission seeking all documents related to the Commission’s investigation of the Google Wi-Spy scandal.
So far only the FCC’s Notice of Apparent Liability For Forfeiture has been made public. It ordered...
News Story
5/2/2012
Posted by Mark Reback
In its relatively short lifespan, Google has turned into a real-life Zardoz, the all-knowing stone head that dominates a post-apocalyptic Earth in the 1974 science fiction film of the same name. But unlike the openly malevolent Zardoz, Google cloaks itself in a do-no-evil mantle.
But that mantle, like the curtain that shielded the ill-fated...
News Story
5/2/2012
Posted by Mark Reback
A consumer advocacy group wants all the documents connected with the FCC's investigation, while some European regulators may give the Google program a new look.
The controversy surrounding Google’s Street View initiative collecting personal data from unprotected private WiFi networks is not dying out, fueled by revelations that a...
News Story
5/1/2012
Posted by Mark Reback
Marius Milner, who created the code that enabled Street View vehicles to capture personal data from WiFi networks, has worked at the company since 2003.
The Google engineer behind the software code used to collect wireless network data and personal information in connection with the company’s Street View program has been identified as a...
News Story
5/1/2012
Posted by Mark Reback
Unredacted FCC findings appear to contradict Google's claim that it inadvertently intercepted individuals' internet communications in the process of gathering data from Wi-Fi networks across the globe for the firm's “Street View” project.
The Federal Communications Commission's investigation into data-collection...
News Story
5/1/2012
Posted by Mark Reback
In the case of FCC vs Google Street View that’s been going on for some weeks, months, and even years now, a “lone engineer” has been identified and called out on his role in the so-called scandal. This fellow is being called “Engineer Doe” by the FCC but has been discovered this week as being a software engineer by...
News Release
4/30/2012
Posted by John M. Simpson
SANTA MONICA, CA – Consumer Watchdog today called for a Senate hearing into the Google Wi-Spy scandal and urged that a key figure known in a Federal Communications Commission report as “Engineer Doe” be granted immunity from prosecution in return for his testimony.
Newly released un-redacted FCC documents show that many people...
