watchdog

It's looking like Google may have to soon cough up the $22.5 million fine it agreed to pay in order to settle Federal Trade Commission claims that it illegally bypassed user privacy settings in Apple's Safari Web browser.

U.S. District Judge Susan Illston approved the fine in San Francisco federal court late Friday, according to the Associated Press. This is the largest penalty the FTC has ever levied against a single company.

Google and the FTC reached the settlement agreement in August when the Web giant agreed to pay $22.5 million on charges that it &… Read more

Internet companies do whatever they want and it needs to stop, a consumer group said in an argument calling for more privacy protection in robotic cars.

Consumer Watchdog is hoping lawmakers amend SB 1298 -- a bill that is expected to be approved by the California Assembly's Transportation Committee today -- to ensure that driverless cars gather the data necessary to run the car and nothing more. A similar bill has already passed in Nevada.

The bill, sponsored by Senator Alex Padilla of Pacoima, Calif. would require the California Highway Patrol to develop rules and regulations to govern how … Read more

Ever wanted to know the deleted tweets of President Obama, Republican nominee Mitt Romney, or even your local congressperson? Well, a new site called Politwoops launched today that aims to collect and preserve all of those tweets.

"From minor typos to major gaffes, Politwoops is now there to offer a searchable window into what they hoped you didn't see," Nicko Margolies, communications coordinator at the Sunlight Foundation, which created Politwoops, wrote in a blog post.

Granted, most of the deleted tweets are not that juicy and the majority seeming to have been nixed for small typos. However, … Read more

Google continues to up the ante on the money it spends each quarter on Washington lobbying.

The search giant spent a record $5.03 million (PDF) last quarter, according to the company's lobbying report. That figure compares with $3.76 million spent in the fourth quarter and just $1.48 million in 2011's first quarter.

Among the lobbying issues grabbing Google's attention were the regulation of online advertising, privacy and competition issues in online advertising, openness and competition in online services, and International tax reform.

The search giant devoted lobby dollars to HR 1389 - Global Online Freedom Act of 2011, … Read more

WASHINGTON, D.C.--Staffers in the U.S. Senate were spied on today, but not by any one of our country's enemies. They were tailed by that most unholy of creatures: the mime.

To illustrate Google's alleged data-collection abuses, Consumer Watchdog, a vocal advocacy group and longtime Google critic hired a group of mimes to playfully spy on Senate staffers and visitors around the Dirksen Senate Office Building.

Dressed in matching track suits with the words "Google Track Team" and "Don't be evil," written on them, the mimes peered over people's shoulders … Read more

When Google chairman Eric Schmidt heads to Washington this week to testify before Congress, political theater will follow him.

Consumer Watchdog, an advocacy group critical of Google's gathering of personal information, is planning a barrage of stunts, a video, and testimony to highlight the dangers of the Web giant's growing power. The group is particularly concerned about Google's tracking of users as they move about the Web, and its gathering of data about them.

So Consumer Watchdog has hired mimes to follow workers around Dirksen Senate Office Building, where Schmidt will testify. Those mimes will be wearing … Read more

A public interest group called Consumer Watchdog has filed an antitrust complaint with the Federal Trade Commission about Facebook Credits, arguing that the virtual currency used for purchases such as assets in online games is anticompetitive.

Specifically, the group objects to new terms for using the credits that go into effect Friday. The group argues in the 28-page complaint (PDF), "The new Facebook Credits terms will enable Facebook to maintain and extend its monopoly power over the market for virtual goods purchased in social games."

In addition, the complaint argues, the new terms prohibit game developers from charging … Read more

WASHINGTON--In a small brownstone on a quiet tree-lined street in the shadows of the Capitol building, four people are plotting against the most powerful company on the Internet.

Tuesday is a busy day at the Washington office of Consumer Watchdog, an advocacy group generally focused on health care and insurance companies but with a prominent sideline as arguably the most vocal critic of Google. Office is perhaps an overstatement: the space reminds me more of a college graduate's first apartment than an office. But it's a temporary home to Consumer Watchdog President Jamie Court and his disciples as … Read more

WASHINGTON--Fresh off the news that Europe is formally investigating Google, a Silicon Valley antitrust expert today laid out the hypothetical case against Google that might play out should U.S. regulators decide to get involved.

Gary Reback, an attorney with Carr & Ferrell and a prominent figure in the antitrust trials involving Microsoft, told attendees at Consumer Watchdog's Future of Online Consumer Protections conference here that the European case, built off complaints by a comparison shopping engine, could demonstrate that Google has improperly penalized specialty search engines in its quest to maintain its leading search engine market share. The … Read more