Europe data regulators have apparently had it with Google. After years of...
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Is 2013 the Year Europe Cracks Down on Google’s Privacy Violations?
Europe data regulators have apparently had it with Google. After years of Google stonewalling governments on the so-called wi-spy scandal around Google snooping on individual data in homes using Street View vehicles and then, last year, changing its privacy policies without getting consent from its users, a taskforce of six European government data agencies announced [...]
FTC “brought forth a couple of mice” in Slapping Google on the Wrist
As predicted, the Federal Trade Commission has punted any serious action against Google’s monopoly dominance of search advertising and related sectors. Worse, it turns out the investigation was so narrow and ultimately so perfunctory that it’s hard to understand what took nineteen months to get such a meager result. Conservative FTC Commissioner J. Thomas Rosch [...]
FTC Punt on Google May Open Way for More Comprehensive Antitrust Probe by DOJ and States
With reports that Google is likely to be let off the hook with minor restrictions on its behavior, the Federal Trade Commission seems ready to punt on the most important antitrust case to come across its desk in years. Given how narrowly the FTC had been approaching the case in the first place, that’s probably [...]
Are you getting ‘Scroogled’? Microsoft ads deride Google | Fox News
Google recently made a radical revamp of its main search page, adding a new category of “sponsored” e-commerce results when consumers search for a particular product — and Microsoft is highlighting the change in a new ad campaign arguing users are getting “Scroogled.” In the past, Google kept a firm distinction between search results that [...]
Will Google Fiber Convulse Local Telecom Markets?
Why is a software company like Google stringing cable in Kansas City for its Google Fiber initiative? Its Google Fiber announcement opens a lot of questions about where the company is going. But the details are interesting to anyone committed to seeing a high-speed broadband future for America: The initiative will deliver1 gigabit of Internet speed [...]
Euro Privacy Agencies Slam Google’s Privacy Violations- But Skim Over Significant Harm to Consumers
Slamming Google’s violation of European privacy laws, the Article 29 Data Protection Working Party of European data protection agencies issued its much anticipated report on Google’s integration of user data across the company’s services. Signed by all 27 heads of European data agencies, the letter and the accompanying appendix laid out the ways Google had [...]
$22.5 Million FTC Fine for Google Safari Privacy Violation- But Google Still Won’t Say It’s Sorry
In an anticipated move, the Federal Trade Commission levied a $22.5 million fine against Google for violating its ongoing consent decree by violating user privacy by secretly tracking Safari users who had asked not to be tracked: In its complaint, the FTC charged that for several months in 2011 and 2012, Google placed a certain [...]
Google Consent Decree has (Small) Teeth: $22.5m fine over Safari privacy breach
It’s now being reported that Google has negotiated a deal with the FTC to settle charges of illegally bypassing privacy settings on users using the Safari browser. According to the Guardian: The Wall Street Journal reports that the FTC and Google are close to agreeing a settlement over the privacy breach, in which Google circumvented Apple‘s protections [...]
Why EU Targeting Google on Data Portability Matters- and Why It’s Probably Not Enough
The European Union has all but announced that it will find that Google has abused its dominant position to undermine competition online – and they are giving the company two weeks to agree to remedies to fix the problems that the EU has identified. The four main concerns include ones regularly discussed in the media [...]
Entering Nixonland: FCC Fines Google for “Willfully” Obstructing Investigations
It’s not the crime, it’s the coverup. You’d think most people would have learned that lesson of Watergate, but Friday’s decision by the Federal Communication Commission to fine Google $25,000 for “willfully” ignoring subpoenas and delaying investigations into the company’s “wi-spy” scandal should be a 25-page wake-up call that Google is accelerating its legal meltdown. [...]