Topic: Joe Barton

Now It’s Facebook’s Turn For 20 Years Of FTC Privacy Audits

According to the New York Times and Wall Street Journal the world’s largest social network is nearing a settlement with the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) that will subject the company to 20 years of “privacy audits.” A nearly identical punishment was imposed earlier this year on Google over “deceptive privacy practices in Google’s rollout […]

Watchdog Group Asks Congress To Examine Google’s WiFi Data Collection, Ties To Obama Administration

In a six-page letter to House Oversight Committee leaders, a watchdog group has called on the government to do a “thorough investigation” of both Google’s WiFi data collection and the FTC’s recent decision to end its investigation without penalizing Google. In a blog post announcing the letter (PDF download), Ken Boehm, chairman of the National […]

Google Legal Headaches Roundup: Angry Chinese Resellers, Toolbar Snooping, Texas Conspiracy Theories

No stranger to lawsuits and regulatory complaints, Google is dealing with a trio of new claims and contentions. Ad reseller partners in China are suing Google for lost commissions and other damages tied to Google’s recent pullout of that market. According to an article in Shanghai Daily: Seven former advertising resellers for Google China in […]

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 […]

Republican Congressman Calls For More “In-Depth” Review Of Proposed Google-Yahoo Search Deal & Another Microsoft-Yahoo Deal On Deck?

Texas Republican Congressman and Google critic Joe Barton wants more information about the proposed paid-search deal between Google and Yahoo. Dissatisfied with Yahoo’s responses to his questions to date, Barton has asked the US Department of Justice to “thoroughly investigate issues of competition and privacy that Yahoo failed to address fully.”  He is concerned about […]

WTF! US Court Declares You Have No Privacy On YouTube

You have no privacy on YouTube. So effectively declared a US judge yesterday. And now somebody in the US government better stop grandstanding about search and privacy protection and actually get some laws enacted. Yesterday’s move might be the ultimate incentive, as US politicians realize that what they’ve watched on YouTube may now be open […]

US Congressman Quizzes Google Again On Privacy

Lawmaker questions Google over privacy practices from Reuters reports Texas Rep. Joe Barton from the U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee quizzed Google on how they will integrate DoubleClick’s data with their own. Some questions posed include how user data from DoubleClick would be merged into Google’s data, how that data would be […]

New Google Privacy Videos Offer Advice On Product Settings

If US Congressman Joe Barton never got an answer to his many questions about Google Privacy (which I thought wasted time asking for stuff an intern could locate), perhaps he’ll be happy watching some of Google’s latest videos released that cover some very specific privacy issues on a product-by-product basis. They join some other video […]

Google And DoubleClick: The Saga Continues

The relevant issues swirling around the pending acquisition of DoubleClick by Google are little understood by the public, pundits, and even, it would seem, by Congress and the regulators charged with approving or disapproving the deal. Danny has written at length about the competitive implications of the deal. But privacy concerns have gotten mixed up […]