Google Agrees to 20 Years Privacy Policy Oversight by FTC

Posted on March 31, 2011 by Peter S. Vogel

Not only was Google’s roll out of Buzz in 2010 badly received by the user community, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed a Complaint for Google’s violation of its own Privacy Policies:

 ...Google launched its Buzz social network through its Gmail web-based email product. Although Google led Gmail users to believe that they could choose whether or not they wanted to join the network, the options for declining or leaving the social network were ineffective. For users who joined the Buzz network, the controls for limiting the sharing of their personal information were confusing and difficult to find, the agency alleged.

The FTC Complaint alleged that Buzz violate US privacy laws, and also violate the US – EU Safe Harbor Framework to allow personal data to be lawfully transferred from the EU to the US. Ultimately Google settled this dispute with the FTC and the FTC announced:

The proposed settlement bars the company from future privacy misrepresentations, requires it to implement a comprehensive privacy program, and calls for regular, independent privacy audits for the next 20 years.

Clearly the FTC settlement with Google sends a huge wake up message to everyone to review their Privacy Policies to avoid FTC actions!

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Obama Gets Mediocre Privacy Grades

Posted on November 15, 2010 by Peter S. Vogel

The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) issued its second annual privacy report card with lower grades of “C for consumer data protection efforts and a D on civil liberties.” Mark Rotenberg, executive director of EPIC said "Our bottom-line assessment is that with respect to privacy, things are getting worse.” The EPIC is pleased that President Obama’s first Cyber Czar Howard Schmidt (who was appointed in December 2009) is working with privacy groups. EPIC’s report is critical of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) which is now reevaluating US privacy laws in the wake of Google’s Buzz disaster and alleged privacy violations by Facebook. Clearly everyone needs to keep an eye on how the Obama administration manages privacy, and now that the Democrats do not control both houses of Congress it will be interesting to see how law makers deal with privacy.

New Congress and Privacy

As matter of fact after the November 2, 2010 election the Washington Post reported  that “Rep. Joe L. Barton (Tex.), ranking GOP member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, signaled the legislative push in a statement about his correspondence with Facebook executives on privacy issues…I want the Internet economy to prosper, but it can't unless the people's right to privacy means more than a right to hear excuses after the damage is done.” Reports of data breaches continue and merely needs to check out the FBI’s websites of Cyber Crime Stories which clearly impact us all. 

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Web 2.0 - FTC Complaint about Google Buzz and Social Media Optimization

Posted on February 17, 2010 by Peter S. Vogel

EPIC (Electronic Privacy Information Center) filed a complaint with the FTC that Google’s new Buzz significantly breached “consumers' expectations of privacy.” Many complaints were made after Google’s recent launch of Buzz, because Buzz automatically created “public circles of friends for users based on their most frequent Gmail contacts.” EPIC wants the FTC to order Google to make Buzz “opt-in.” What this means to Google’s social media evolution will be interesting to watch.

HEADLINE: “Facebook directs more online users than Google”

At the same time that Google’s social media is taking center stage a report was released that indicates that Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is being replaced with Social Media Optimization (SMO):

“According to Web measurement firm Compete Inc., Facebook has passed search-engine giant Google to become the top source for traffic to major portals like Yahoo and MSN, and is among the leaders for other types of sites.”

There’s no rocket science to understand that Facebook’s 400 million friends have changed communications forever and SMO’s impact of search engines and SEO cannot be ignored. As Facebook rolls out its Titan email system SMO is certain to expand.

Aardvark joins Google!

At the same time of this Buzz controversy Google purchased Aardvark which is interesting since Vark.com “has defined a new kind of social search: sometimes you want a person, not a web page, to answer your question.” SMO and SEO are in the middle of Google’s evolution. This is a lot to digest at one time. Stay tuned.

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