Google & AGs Hash Out Street View Privacy Settlement

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Pending court approval, Google, Inc., has settled the Street View-inspired invasion of privacy case brought by the Attorneys General of 38 states.

According to reports in The New York Times and Wall St. Journal, the San Francisco-based social platform colossus will pay a $7 million fine for its street map project transgressions, in which Google vehicles equipped with antennas and software captured private network id data, including passwords and email, payload data and data frames from unencrypted wireless networks of residences and businesses.

Besides the $7 million penalty, which the company is likely to earn back in the time it takes "TUOL" to complete this post, under the proposed settlement, Google must promote a nationwide campaign to inform consumers about how to protect personal data and secure wireless networks, educate its employees concerning user data confidentiality, observe protocols to protect Street View data collected from 2008 to 2010, produce a YouTube video informing viewers how to encrypt wireless network data that it must promote in daily ads for two years and take out educational ads in the largest newspapers in the 38 affected states. The company must, within six months of the settlement, implement an internal privacy program.

Google's "rap sheet" continues to grow. Last year, the company was fined $22.5 million by the FTC for circumventing the Safari browser's privacy settings (see "TUOL" post 2/21/12), and paid the FCC $25,000 for obstructing the agency's investigation of the Street View data grab. In 2011, Google agreed to be audited for a 20-year period by the FTC after admitting employing deceptive tactics when it launched the Buzz social network. Looming large as the next privacy battleground is Google Glass, computer eyewear that potentially could eavesdrop on individuals' private interactions. Hard to say whether the 15-year-old Google is just displaying adolescent rambunctiousness or full-blown juvenile delinquency.

Led by then-Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, the multi-state probe of Street View began in June 2010 (see "TUOL" post 10/16/10).

Google's Safari Hijinks Prompts Congressmen to Seek FTC Inquiry

Image via WikipediaFederal Trade Commission Chair Jon Leibowitz last Friday received a letter from Congressmen Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Joe Barton (R-Texas) urging the agency to probe whether social media giant Google has engaged in "unlawful privacy practices" by using source code chicanery to bypass Web browser Safari's privacy settings, Jurist (www.jurist.org) reports.

Responding to a Feb. 17 article that appeared in The Wall Street Journal, the Representatives, who serve in the Congressional Bi-Partisan Privacy Caucus, queried the FTC concerning whether Google's actions that enabled it to track Safari users without their consent ran afoul of a 2011 settlement agreement between the FTC and Google occasioned by the social network Google Buzz's breach of privacy rights during its launch. The accord prohibits Google from misrepresenting its privacy policies to users and requires user consent before the sharing of personal information with third parties.

According to the Journal article, Google employed special computer code that deceived Safari, Apple's Web browsing software, into allowing Google to monitor Safari users, neutralizing Safari's default settings that block user tracking. The Journal article claims Google disabled the code soon after the Journal contacted the social media company for the article.

Google is set to implement its new privacy policy March 1. The company was targeted earlier this month in a lawsuit filed in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia by the Electronic Privacy Information Center against the FTC (Case No. 1:2012-cv-00206). The suit, filed under the Administrative Procedure Act [5 U.S.C. sec. 706(1)] seeks injunctive relief that would compel the FTC to enforce the consent order of October 13, 2011, in In the Matter of Google, Inc. (FTC File No. 1023136).

Google is also under fire from the European Union, which this month sent a letter to Google urging it to delay implementing its new privacy policy until the EU fully investigates it.

Readers taken aback by Google's behavior in this matter are well-advised to heed comedian Bill Maher's reminder that it's no accident that within the name Google is the word ogle.

Facebook Waiting to Get Poked After Resolving FTC Complaint

Image via WikipediaSocial network leviathan Facebook, which as early as the first quarter of 2012 is expected to roll out an IPO that may top $100 billion, this week settled a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission filed in 2009 by the Electronic Privacy Information Center concerning changes in Facebook's privacy policies.

Under fire for a policy shift that allegedly made users' personal information accessible to third parties that previously had been unavailable, Facebook, pursuant to an agreement with the FTC, will have to undergo bi-annual privacy audits over the next two decades. Additionally, before initiating revisions to its privacy policies, Facebook henceforth must give users prominent notice of any alterations to privacy settings and obtain their consent.

The company has added two attorneys to oversee Facebook's privacy concerns. According to published accounts, Facebook's resolution of the FTC complaint could subject it to maximum fines of $16,000 per infraction if it violates the settlement terms.

Growing Price of 'Astroturf'

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Regulators are cracking down on dubious endorsements of online products and faux reviews by marketers.

"Astroturfing," a marketing practice so-named because it involves seeding the Internet with fake testimonials and reviews of products, is coming under fire both here and abroad from government officials and consumer watchdog groups. The European Union has instructed member nations to prohibit individuals from falsely portraying themselves as consumers of a product or service promoted on the Web.

Closer to home, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) this summer will shore up its guidelines to clarify its opposition to trumped up online reviews. Recently, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo forced Lifestyle Lift, Inc., a cosmetic surgery practice, to fork over $300,000 after it had its employees write glowing tributes about the business while pretending to be satisfied customers, .

Recently, the travel Website, TripAdvisor, warned visitors that several of its 400,000 customer reviews of places to stay may have been written by hoteliers. In January 2009, Belkin Electronics apologized on its Website for the actions of a sales rep who paid a fee to individuals to write positive online reviews and to flag negative product reviews as "not helpful."

The FTC for more than two decades has required product endorsements to be honest opinions from actual consumers and has mandated disclosure of payments or other circumstances that might taint the credibility of the testimonials. An April survey of more than 1,000 adults by Opinion Research Corp. revealed 84 percent said they were influenced in their online purchases by favorable customer evaluations.

Probably an inopportune time to note that :"The Unruly of Law" has received 5 platinum stars and 4 opposable thumbs-up for its thoughtful coverage of media law and journalism issues from a group whose acronym is too long to repeat here.