Critics Call For Probe Into Google Government Ties

bonch writes "The National Legal and Policy Center has written to the House Oversight Committee to investigate alleged ties between Google and the Obama administration, specifically with regards to the closure of an FTC probe into Google's Wi-Fi privacy breach, when the company admitted to having collected users' unencrypted information over the course of three years. The NLPC compares Google's relationship with the administration to that of Halliburton and cites the timing of a $30,000-a-head Democratic fundraiser at Google CEO Marissa Meyer's home less than a week before the FTC ended its inquiry, where Obama made a personal appearance, as well as the fact that US deputy chief technology officer Andrew McLaughlin is a former Google employee. The NLPC further alleges that the FTC is tougher on other companies, issuing fines to Twitter and Sears for their privacy violations while letting Google off the hook after the company promised to improve its privacy practices."

Comments

Same Obama administration

[Enderandrew]

Is this the same Obama administration that threatened Google with an anti-trust trial and breaking Google up if they landed a search deal with Yahoo, but said they'd allow Microsoft to buy-out Yahoo?

I wouldn't say the administration has been particularly pro-Google.

And ?

[unity100]

where the fuck these people were during bush era, and why didnt they call any inquiry to bush administrations BLATANT dealings with haliburton ?

Re:Just another non-profit, I'm sure

[Bigjeff5]

I can get behind that. Wikipedia really is shit for anything political or otherwise controversial. It's really only useful for shit no one cares about.

"Only an idiot fights a war on two fronts."

[Tekfactory]

"Only the heir to the throne of the Kingdom of Idiots would fight a war on twelve fronts."

So lets count them

Google vs. Microsoft (in search) - I'm going to f***ing bury Google
Google vs. Apple (smartphones)
Google vs. Facebook (social networking/open-ness)
Google vs. MPAA (YouTube)
Google vs. ATT/Verizon (FCC Spectrum Auction)
Google vs. Oracle (Java)
Google vs. Patent Office (Patent Reform)
Google vs. Author's Guild (copyright on orphan works)

The shame of it all is most if not all of those fights are worth fighting and very few others are stepping up to the plate.

Re:"Only an idiot fights a war on two fronts."

[icebraining]

Schmidt said his belief is that the core of Net neutrality is the idea that network providers shouldn't be able to favor one particular provider of content over another, but he said that networks should be able to prioritize a content medium, say, voice over video.

"People get confused about Net neutrality," Schmidt said. "I want to make sure that everybody understands what we mean about it. What we mean is that if you have one data type, like video, you don't discriminate against one person's video in favor of another. It's OK to discriminate across different types...There is general agreement with Verizon and Google on this issue. The issues of wireless versus wireline get very messy...and that's really an FCC issue not a Google issue."

Unless they're lying through their teeth, I'm with Google. QoS is fine.

Re:More Info on the NLPC, they are DIRTY

[clarkkent09]

Media Matters describes itself as a "progressive" center dedicated to "correcting conservative misinformation" financed by a left wing billionaire George Soros (who by the way made his billions in currency speculations on a scale that bankrupted a country). Sounds fair and balanced to me.

Re:This is just propaganda

[bonch]

On Slashdot, only right-wingers are evil puppetmasters. Left-wingers are enlightened, oppressed victims just trying to get the word out.

Just look at all the people who immediately rushed to Google's defense by attacking the NLPC while completely ignoring the points they raised in their letter about the timing of the FTC inquiry's dismissal, the inconsistent punishments handed out to companies other than Google, or the Google employees serving in the administration. To them, none of the accusations have any merit because of the NLPC's political leanings, even though they're refuting none of the accusations.

You cannot criticize Google on Slashdot. The posters have become fanatical about this company no matter how many privacy breaches there are or how many boneheaded statements Eric Schmidt makes. If it was any other company, people would be all over their asses. If Steve Jobs said only people who have something to hide care about privacy, it would be a months-long controversy.

Re:More Info on the NLPC, they are DIRTY

[Attila Dimedici]

Do you take everybody at their word? Just because they say they are about debunking misinformation doesn't mean that they don't create misinformation. Media Matters spends a lot of time "debunking" information they don't like.

Re:Let no good deed go unpunished

[Anonymous Coward]

Kismet default captures all unencrypted wireless traffic.

Re:This is the real result of the election

[ImprovOmega]

The reason they didn't go after the Republicans is the same reason we didn't nuke Russia during the Cold War: mutually assured destruction. Start shining a flashlight into the dark corners of Washington politics and everyone is guilty. 2/3's of the administration would have ended up in jail, impeached, or at least publicly ridiculed over such an attempt. The Dems don't talk about or investigate Halliburton (except to regurgitate the talking heads' arguments ad nauseum) and the Republicans do not go after Democrats ties to labor unions (except as vague campaign promises that never lead to action).

There's similar quid pro quo deals all through Washington, unspoken but very real. The only thing that they can seem to agree on is the putting down of any upstart who won't play the game. Hence any real, honest politician is either corrupted into the system, or they cooperate to find/manufacture dirt about him and get him booted out of office. It's sickening.

Re:This is just propaganda

[Anonymous Coward]

Bullshit. They just want to implement serfdom in a different way. It's called socialism. They want to take as much of your hard earned money as they can and dole it out back to themselves and whomever they find to have the "greatest need". Think I'm wrong? What do you think Social Security, Medicare, and the recent health care plan are all about. They're all just giant power grabs in the guise of being for "the greater good". It's about the Democrats thinking they are better equipped to spend your money than you are. They don't think that the product of your labor should belong to you, it should belong to them. And if you speak out against them they do a media hatchet job on you to make it look like you enjoy spending your evenings kicking puppies.