We all remember the privacy concerns that Facebook brought on themselves attempting to expand and then reduce the various options for sharing your information on Facebook. Those privacy concerns grew radically as people were reporting how they could get confidential information about Facebook users and accounts. That has died down and we are hearing about privacy issues with Google now.
Google is making changes to its privacy, but unfortunately they are not taking effect until October 3rd. This appeared on the Google Blog on Friday. What is very strange is who posted this announcement, Mike Yang who has a role of Associate General Counsel. It appears that this is directly due to a recent settlement related to privacy issues over Google Buzz, which reportly cost them $8.5 million to settle. Whenever lawyers are involved, it is for the expressed purpose of protecting the company they represent.
There are other reports of investigations of Google going on by the US federal government along with investigations in a number of other companies regarding privacy concerns about Google and its practices. We all remember the issue with Google Street view where they were collecting other information about open wireless locations. This has caused major concerns in Germany and as a result, Google offered an “opt out” option for people there.
Now, there is a You Tube video, attempting to point out the abuses of Google in collecting private information. The group, Consumer Watchdog, has put a video on You Tube that represents an ad, which they are running to point out concerns about your privacy on Google. They are trying to raise awareness of Google activities to the public. There is a 540-square-foot Jumbotron digital display in New York’s Time Square, which Consumer Watchdog has paid to have the 15 second video display 36 times a day. This will go on through October 15th.
The strange thing in all of this is that Google as a company is not changing the privacy practices of the company, which has gotten them into a lot of trouble. The only thing, according to Mr. Yang that is changing is the language and presentation as part of plans to make the defined policies “more transparent and understandable”. It would appear that this is all for the lawyers and not for the benefit of the public that really needs to be protected from Google and the many activities which they do to collect information. Hopefully, someone in management, who is not a lawyer, comes to realize that privacy concerns are rising among web users.
“Consumer Watchdog” is an astroturfing anti-google group masquerading as a consumer advocacy organization.
Please don’t drink their Kool-Aid. they are from “Grassroots Enterprise”.