There’s a lot of buzzing in the blogosphere right now (you can read Jordan’s coverage here), as it appears Google is under fire again for its privacy policies. AP reports that London-based Privacy International has issued a study of 23 internet companies, with Google coming out dead-last. In fact no other company studied, received the same low rating.
Google Almost “Endemic Threat to Privacy”
Privacy International chose to label Google as with the worst privacy rating of any of the twenty-three companies they examined in their report on privacy for Internet service companies.
I think that at least some of the reasoning behind PI’s rating is found in their statement:
Michigan Schools Get Google Apps For Education
Google occasionally works out deals with individual universities, but it appears that the search engine company is starting to think big. Not Texas-big, perhaps, but Michigan-big. It’s in this latter state that Google intends to roll out Google Apps for Education.
Plans For Google Kenya Kick Into High Gear
Starbucks, McDonalds, and Google – I’m starting to think that, by 2040 or so, there will be at least one building per company on every square mile of this planet. The latest bit of evidence supporting this theory is Google’s plan to expand into Kenya.
Google May Ask You To Prove You’re Human
British digi-rag the Inquirer’s Fernando Cassia had a run in with the "GoogleMind," as he calls it, after entering a query that sent up red flags. To continue his search, Cassia had to prove he wasn’t a robot.
NY Politicians Argue Over Google Earth
New York politicians appear to be at odds over just how dangerous Google Earth might be; Assemblyman Mike Gianaris is asking Google to blur out images of “sensitive” sites, while Mayor Michael Bloomberg feels such efforts may not be the best use of time.
Google Names Microsoft In Antitrust Matter
Google filed an antitrust complaint against Microsoft, in secret, several months ago; the complaint suggested that Vista’s desktop search function is too hard to turn off.
Now, as you might have noticed, the complaint has become public, and several interesting details relating to the matter have also come to light.
Privacy Group Slaps Google, Fans Slap Back
The blogosphere erupted over the weekend after Privacy International released a scathing (damning) report declaring Google the worst of the bunch at protecting privacy – well, they used words like "ambivalent" and even "hostile." But critics inside and outside of Google are calling the report unfair and poorly researched.
Google, SINA Partner On Search
Chinese Internet portal SINA Corporation has teamed with Google to improve SINA’s search offerings in the areas of advertising and news.
“Google, SINA Partner On Search”
Privacy Groups Ping FTC Over Google/DoubleClick
The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), the Center for Digital Democracy (CDD), and US Public Interest Research Group (US PRIG), are about as happy about the Google DoubleClick deal as Microsoft was, but for different reasons.