Google’s anti-privacy bill push sparks outrage among advertisers
Advertisers reject Google's campaign against California's privacy bill saying businesses should build consent-driven customer relationships.
Topic: Data collection
Is Google using Chrome for mobile-first indexing and user signals?
SEO expert Cindy Krum explains how she believes Google is using Chrome user data for rendering, indexing, ranking and beyond.
How to harness the power of data gathering for SEO
Amid the sea of generic AI content, set your SEO strategy apart with original research. Learn methods and tools for leveraging unique data.
WalkerOS: A data collection alternative to gtag.js
Should you replace Google's gtag.js with an open source alternative like walkerOS? Explore the use cases, benefits and potential drawbacks.
Setting up event parameters in GA4: Everything you need to know
Learn how to set up event parameters in Google Analytics 4 for a deeper understanding of user actions and effective data interpretation.
How to turn polls and surveys into great content
Here's why you should use polls and surveys to inform content creation and how to turn audience responses into valuable content pieces.
11 steps to setting up a successful GA4 property
Like it or not, Universal Analytics is going away in 2023. But setting up GA4 doesn't have to be overwhelming. Here are 11 things to remember as you're setting up a new GA4 property.
Apple’s data-collection ‘nutrition labels’ for apps will begin appearing next week
Developers are now required to self-report to Apple on the data they collect from users. Very few will escape the new rules.
More EU antitrust heat for Google (and Facebook) over data collection
In a separate matter, 41 shopping comparison sites want the European Commission to further penalize Google in shopping search.
Missouri Attorney General initiates Google antitrust investigation
Focus is on consumer data collection practices and alleged "search bias."
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From Novelty To Foundational Product: The Evolution Of Google Maps
Until Android came along Google’s most important product after search undoubtedly was Google Maps. I know it sounds heretical to say this but in some ways Maps is more strategic to Google than search today. That’s because Google Maps bridge the physical and digital worlds and because Maps are more “useful” to mobile users than […]
Where SEM Is Concerned, Google+ Appears To Be Alive And Well
Last week saw a flurry of speculation on the future of Google+ after the head of Google+, Vic Gundotra, announced his departure. The question raised most often is whether Google+ is going away. Although some are reporting that G+ will kill the product side, the platform (in terms of data collection and unique user sign-ins) […]
Apple Beefing Up Maps With Crowdsourcing, “Ground Truth” Hires
Apple Insider points out that Apple is hiring for dozens of positions in its mapping group. There are more than 80 positions that respond to the keywords “Apple Maps” on the company’s jobs site. Among a range of other positions, Apple has been seeking “ground truth local experts” for various cities. Here’s one such job […]
Google Is Hiring Someone To Find Ways To Make You Want To Search While Signed-In
Google is hiring a new product marketing manager for search with one of the key goals being to find ways to get people to sign-in while they search. The job description says: As Product Marketing Manager within the search growth team, you will be responsible to developing plans, creatives, campaigns and programs to increase the […]
Pew: 50 Percent Have Cleared Smartphone Search History
There’s a cat and mouse game going on between developers, publishers and mobile users. The former group is often trying to “connect the dots” and gather as much data and information on user behavior and, in some cases, individual activity as possible. By contrast, mobile phone owners (especially smartphone owners) are often trying to thwart […]
Google Screenwise: New Program Pays You To Give Up Privacy & Surf The Web With Chrome
Google is quietly taking requests from web users who want to get paid to surf the web using the Chrome browser while sharing data with Google. The program is called Screenwise and, though we’re not aware of any official announcement, Google has a signup page at www.google.com/landing/screenwisepanel. The page explains that Google wants to create […]
Live Blog: “Which Way Google?” At SMX East
Welcome! It’s the “Which Way Google?” panel here at SMX East. We’ve got a great panel — Jeff Jarvis, Steven Levy and Marc Rotenberg — set to cover a range of issues. Let’s live blog. This is new for me — I never live blog at my own conferences. But I saw the queen of […]
Report: Google Street View Collected Device Locations, Not Just WiFi Access Points
Google is likely to face more privacy-related challenges on the heels of news today that the company’s Street View vehicles have collected more than just the location of WiFi access points. According to a CNET article today, Google collected those WiFi access points along with the location of client devices including mobile phones and desktop […]
Connecticut Attorney General Threatens Legal Action Over Google WiFi Data
Connecticut’s outgoing Attorney General says legal action is a possibility after Google refused to turn over personal data that it’s collected via unsecured wifi networks. Richard Blumenthal tells the Wall Street Journal that he’s “disappointed” by Google’s decision not to respond to recent demands to review data that Google collected from Connecticut businesses and residences. […]
Do Not Track: FTC Proposes Sweeping New Framework For Consumer Privacy Protection
Much of the attention and online discussion around the US Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC’s) just-released privacy report focuses on the concept of a “Do Not Track” mechanism, similar to the “Do Not Call” list now in place. The recommendation is that any such capability operate at the browser level and communicate to publishers and their […]
Google Sued Over Toolbar Sending Data While Turned Off
Jason Weber is suing Google over how the Google Toolbar in the past sent data to Google even while the toolbar was turned off. The suit was filed on November 5th by Webner and his attorneys, KamberLaw, based in New York. The plaintiff is suing on his “personal” experience and claims that the toolbar was […]
Google Maps Privacy: The Street View & Wifi Scorecard
It seems not a week goes by without news of a new investigation into Google’s Street View service, or into Google’s collection of personal data via unencrypted WiFi networks that occurred over three years as Street View vehicles drove the world’s streets. It seems like one country opens an investigation just as another country ends […]
Google May Face Congressional Hearing Over WiFi Data Collection
Calling Google’s collection of personal data over unsecured WiFi networks “very troubling,” a US congressman says CEO Eric Schmidt may be called to answer questions when the new Congress convenes next year. Representative Joe Barton made the comments on C-SPAN’s The Communicators program today. Although Google has repeatedly said the data collection was inadvertent, Barton […]
Privacy, “The Creepy Line” And Beyond: It’s Not Just About Google
Most of you have seen the recent and now semi-infamous quote from Google CEO Eric Schmidt about how Google goes right “up to” what it considers a taboo boundary — “the creepy line” — but not beyond: “There is what I call the creepy line,” he said at an event at the Newseum. “The Google […]
Google Stops WiFi Collecting Street View Cars After Privacy Concerns
The Google Blog admitted that they made a significant privacy mistake with some of their Street View cars. The wifi data collecting versions of the Google Street View cars were not just collecting publicly broadcast SSID information and MAC addresses but they were also collecting “samples of payload data from open (i.e. non-password-protected) WiFi networks,” […]
Feeling Sick? Google Begins Asking Some Searchers Who Look For Illness-Related Terms
Why exactly are you searching for “headache” or “ear infection” at Google? Do you have one of these illnesses or are you researching them? Google wants to know, and will find out by asking a small number of people directly within the search results, beginning today. It’s part of a process that Google hopes will […]
AT&T Secretly ‘In Bed’ With BT Firm?
AT&T which has publicly advocated on behalf of relatively stringent rules and opt-in requirements around behavioral targeting (BT) appears to have been working with BT firm Audience Science (formerly Revenue Science). Wendy Davis at MediaPost has written two related stories on the issue. Here’s her summary of the apparent contradiction between AT&T’s public position and […]
Today Is “Data Privacy Day;” Bush Admin Launches Internet Monitoring Initiative
For most people, today is Monday, January 28. However, today has been designated “Data Privacy Day” in North America and in 27 European countries in conjunction with the International Association of Privacy Professionals. Google’s privacy counsel, Jane Horvath, says the company is joining in an international privacy conference being held at Duke University in Durham, […]
FTC Town Hall Meeting To Examine ‘Behavioral Advertising’
The US Federal Trade Commission is going to have a public forum in Washington, DC on Nov. 1-2 to bring together various consumer groups, academics and interested parties to address concerns “raised by the practice of tracking consumers’ activities online to target advertising.” The last time the FTC looked into “online profiling” for the purposes […]