Last year, Google launched Buzz, a social network "built right into Gmail, so you don't have to peck out an entirely new set of friends from scratch," boasted the search giant. "Buzz brings this network to the surface by automatically setting you up to follow the people you email and chat with the most…[and] building an easy-to-use sharing experience that richly integrates photos, videos and links, and makes it easy to share publicly or privately."
Much to Google's dismay, Buzz turned out to be a huge bust, and not only because it was incredibly unpopular among users. The social network was riddled with privacy concerns, so much so that the Federal Trade Commission charged the company with using "deceptive tactics" and violating "its own privacy promises to consumers."
Today, Google settled with the FTC. As part of the proposed settlement, Google is barred from "future privacy misrepresentations," and is required to participate in a comprehensive privacy program that includes "regular, independent privacy audits" for the next 20 years. According to the FTC, this marks the first time an FTC settlement order has required the implementation of a comprehensive privacy program--in other words, Google is essentially on FTC probation.
"When companies make privacy pledges, they need to honor them," said FTC chairman Jon Leibowitz in a statement. "This is a tough settlement that ensures that Google will honor its commitments to consumers and build strong privacy protections into all of its operations."
In the original complaint, the FTC alleged that Google misled users over how much personal information would be shared on Buzz, and further alleged that privacy controls were "confusing an difficult to find." Even some users who chose not to join the service, the FTC said, were nevertheless signed up for some features of Google's failed social network. "Google also offered a 'Turn Off Buzz' option that did not fully remove the user from the social network," the FTC added.
In response to the settlement, Alma Whitten, a director of privacy at Google, apologized for the company's errors.
"We don’t always get everything right. The launch of Google Buzz fell short of our usual standards for transparency and user control--letting our users and Google down. While we worked quickly to make improvements, regulators--including the U.S. Federal Trade Commission--unsurprisingly wanted more detail about what went wrong and how we could prevent it from happening again," wrote Whitten on Google's blog. "We’d like to apologize again for the mistakes we made with Buzz. While today’s announcement thankfully put this incident behind us, we are 100 percent focused on ensuring that our new privacy procedures effectively protect the interests of all our users going forward."
COMMENTARY: News about online privacy violations are running rampant and the FTC is very busy these days chasing down and investigating online privacy violations.
- Twitter just settled with the FTC for privacy violations, and like Google, has also been placed on 20-year probation. Here's the FTC press release.
- In October, 201o, Facebook and MySpace representatives were both questioned by a U.S. Senate Commerce Committee about their privacy protection policies as a prelude to future online privacy legislation.
- According to the Wall Street Journal, 101 mobile apps pirated vital user information. All the major mobile game app developer's have been implicated. The FTC has not looked into the matter.
- LinkedIn just got sued yesterday for purported privacy violations.
The list of privacy violations by online social networks is getting long and distinguished. It is about time that Congress and the FTC really cracked down hard on online privacy violations. When there is personal identity theft and credit card information is stolen, people go to prison and severely fined. When people are convicted of using insider information to benefit from securities trades, the SEC fines them and they go to prison. We need to do the same with the social networks and other online sites. I would love seeing the CEO's of social networks, like Eric Schmidt (Google), Don Costolo/Evan Williams (Twitter) and Zuck in prison dungarees even if its just for a few months. I would love that very much.
In the FTC's press release about the Google settlement dated March 23, 2011, it says:
“When companies make privacy pledges, they need to honor them,” said Jon Leibowitz, Chairman of the FTC. “This is a tough settlement that ensures that Google will honor its commitments to consumers and build strong privacy protections into all of its operations."
In the press release about the FTC settlements with both Google and Twitter, it states:
"A consent agreement is for settlement purposes only and does not constitute an admission by the respondent that the law has been violated. When the Commission issues a consent order on a final basis, it carries the force of law with respect to future actions. Each violation of such an order may result in a civil penalty of up to $16,000".
If the FTC had imposed that $16,000 per violation penalty, it would've been sufficient to put both Google and Twitter out-of-business. However, the feds would never impose a penalty that serious because it is not in their best interests. The Feds depend on and carefully monitor the activities of users on social networks and other sites to compile and track down criminals and terrorists. Attorney's also use social sites to gather evidence they can use in lawsuits and divorce cases. What a racket.
Courtesy of an article dated March 30, 2011 appearing in Fast Company
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