Press Release
So-called “Family-Friendly” YouTube Kids App Combines Commercials and Videos, Violating Long-Standing Safeguards for Protecting Children
Washington, DC – Consumer Watchdog has joined a coalition of prominent children’s and consumer advocacy groups that filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission today requesting an investigation of Google, charging the company with unfair and deceptive practices in connection with its new YouTube Kids app.
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Consumer Watchdog, a vocal anti-Google advocacy group, has urged regulators to consider breaking up Google. The group says the company’s search engine is a “gateway” to the Web and that it should be forced to spin off some of its businesses to ensure that it doesn’t have an unfair advantage.
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California-based Google critic Consumer Watchdog called Google’s sweeping changes a “spy policy” rather than a privacy policy, an allusion to the fact that the move will help Google funnel data on users in one larger silo for targeted ads.
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“Calling this a privacy policy is Orwellian doublespeak,” John Simpson, privacy project director for Consumer Watchdog and a longtime Google critic, said in a statement. “Google isn’t telling you about protecting your privacy. Google is telling you how they will gather information about you on all of its services, combine it in new ways and use the fat new digital dossiers to sell more ads. They’re telling you how they plan to spy on you.”
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“Calling this a ‘privacy policy’ is Orwellian doublespeak,” said John M. Simpson, Consumer Watchdog’s Privacy Project Director. “Google isn’t telling you about protecting your privacy. Google is telling you how they will gather information about you on all its services, combine it in new ways and use the fat new digital dossiers to sell more ads. They’re telling you how they plan to spy on you. It’s a spy policy.”
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“Calling this a ‘privacy policy’ is Orwellian doublespeak,” said John Simpson of the US advocacy group Consumer Watchdog.
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“Google claims that it’s attempting to streamline its policies — in fact, it’s about building even more detailed digital dossiers about the people who use Google services so that Google will get more ad revenue.,” says John M. Simpson, director of Consumer Watchdog’s Privacy Project, a California-based non-profit organization.“
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WASHINGTON – As watchdog groups urge a slowdown in Google’s new privacy policy, Rep. Mary Bono Mack’s office announced Tuesday a hearing on privacy issues March 29 in which Google will likely participate.
Press Release
SANTA MONICA, CA – The Obama Administration’s blueprint to protect online privacy with a “Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights” unveiled today could provide meaningful protections, Consumer Watchdog said, but warned that the test of its effectiveness will come as the implementation unfolds. The nonprofit, nonpartisan public interest group also voiced a concern that an announced Internet industry commitment to honor “Do Not Track” could be aimed at undercutting an effort by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) to create a strict Do Not Track standard.
Press Release
SANTA MONICA, CA — Consumer Watchdog today praised state attorneys general for voicing their concerns about Google’s changes in privacy polices and asking for a meeting with the Internet giant’s CEO Larry Page. Attorneys general from 35 other states and territories joined Maryland Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler in sending the letter. They gave Google a week to reply.
