At a panel on Internet Censorship in China at the Computers Freedom and Privacy conference, Google's senior policy counsel Andrew McLaughlin a set of principles to help Google cope with censorship in China and elsewhere: Disclose censorship to users. Google's…
Category: Search Engines
Google Sued for Child Porn
Google is being sued for profiting from child pornography: Jeffrey Toback, a Democratic representative in New York's Nassau County Legislature, charged in a complaint filed Thursday that Google has been taking in billions of dollars by allowing child pornography and…
Search Can Be Your Enemy
CIO.com features this column about how the reach of search engines shatters the myth of "security through obscurity": A month or so ago, I was on the phone with Leonard Fuld, who’s known for his work in competitive intelligence, about…
Nick Carr: Google Float & Google Gag
I recently discovered Nicholas Carr's excellent blog Rough Type. Two recent posts are worth noting. First, he comments on the Google AdSense policy of only paying publishers when they earn more than $100 in their AdSense account: Google doesn't seem…
Microsoft, Yahoo, potatoes and the NSA
I found this commentary about reports that Microsoft and Yahoo are building massive data storage facilities near a large NSA data-mining facility in rural Washington, and thought I should reproduce it in its entirety. It is simultaneously funny and scary:Microsoft,…
Google Putting your Traffic Data to Use?
With tools like Google Toolbar, Google Analytics, Web Accelerator, Adsense and Adwords, Google has a variety of means of collecting information about where users browse (with Toolbar & Accelerator, they can track your browsing off of Google properties as well).…
Google Wi-Fi requries Google Account; Info Held 6 Months
This San Francisco Chronicle article notes that the Google municipal wi-fi service will require users to create a Google account and log on to access the free service. While (savvy) users can create anonymous accounts, requiring a login makes it…
Read More Google Wi-Fi requries Google Account; Info Held 6 Months
Google Wi-Fi as State Agent?
Following up on these privacy concerns with municipal wi-fi programs, I am beginning to wonder to what extent the providers of muni-wi-fi (such as Google) might be considered "state agents" when it comes to the collecting of personal information via…
Google Wins Right to Track Wi-Fi Users in San Francisco
A partnership between Google and Earthlink beat other bids to provide municipal wi-fi to the citizens of San Francisco. While muni-wi-fi is definitely a step towards lessening the digital divide, this particular plan is not as "free" as Google says…
Read More Google Wins Right to Track Wi-Fi Users in San Francisco
The Privacy Costs of Municipal Wi-Fi
Chris Hoofnagle points to a very important article in the Nation by Jeff Chester discussing the privacy costs of many of the proposals for municipal wi-fi, including Google's plan for San Francisco. The benefits of muni-wi-fi are great, but proposals…
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