Tag Archives: Bono Mack
Safari no-tracking mechanism bypassed
Google came under fire today by several members of Congress after a Stanford University grad student disclosed how the search giant has been tracking the online activities of users of Apple’s Safari Web browser, despite the default use of a browser mechanism to block such tracking.
Jonathan Mayer, a grad student and privacy researcher, wrote about Google’s Safari tracking techniques in this blog posting. Mayer’s findings got wide attention after The Wall Street Journal featured it in a story published Friday.
Rachel Whetstone, Google’s senior vice president of communications and public policy, says the Journal “mischaracterizes what happened and why.”
Whetstone says the Safari browser “contained functionality that then enabled other Google advertising cookies to be set on the browser.” She says Google’s engineers “didn’t anticipate that this would happen.” The search giant has started removing these advertising cookies from Safari browsers, she says.
Even so, backlash has followed.
Article source: http://rssfeeds.usatoday.com/~r/usatoday-TechTopStories/~3/p9goikJeYTs/1
Safari no-tracking mechanism by-passed
Google came under fire today by several members of Congress after a Stanford University grad student disclosed how the search giant has been tracking the online activities of users of Apple’s Safari web browser, despite the default use of a browser mechanism to block such tracking.
Jonathan Mayer, a grad student and privacy researcher, wrote about Google’s Safari tracking techniques in this blog posting. Mayer’s findings got wide attention after the Wall Street Journal featured it in a news story published Friday morning.
Rachel Whetstone, Google’s senior vice president of communications and public policy, says the Journal “mischaracterizes what happened and why.”
Whetstone says the Safari browser “contained functionality that then enabled other Google advertising cookies to be set on the browser.” She says Google’s engineers “didn’t anticipate that this would happen.” The search giant has started removing these advertising cookies from Safari browsers, she says.
Even so, backlash
Article source: http://rssfeeds.usatoday.com/~r/usatoday-TechTopStories/~3/p9goikJeYTs/1
Open hearings on privacy on tap for spring
Rep. Mary Bono Mack, R-Calif., says there wasn’t enough time to set up a full public hearing on the controversial user agreement changes Google announced last week. Those changes take effect March 1 and will enable the search giant to step up the cross-referencing of profiling data collected from users of its popular online services. Google says it is not collecting any data from users of Google Search, Gmail, Google Apps, YouTube, Picasa and other popular services that it hasn’t before and that the policy change is to improve user experience.
Even so, Bono Mack pushed ahead with a closed-door meeting today at which Google deputy general counsel Mike Yang and public policy director Pablo Chavez briefed her and nine of her colleagues. Rep. Joe Barton, R-Tex., for one, came away unsatisfied.
“I asked specifically about Google’s deletion policy and got some disturbing answers. I may
Article source: http://rssfeeds.usatoday.com/~r/usatoday-TechTopStories/~3/sAG9ZPifAxo/1
Google execs defend new privacy policy
However, the search giant failed to assuage lawmakers’ privacy concerns stemming from the company’s controversial plans to step up the cross-referencing of data generated by consumers who use its popular online services, says Rep. Mary Bono Mack, R-Calif., who arranged the closed-door briefing.
Pablo Chavez, Google’s public policy director, and Michael Yang, its deputy general counsel, outlined how the company supplies consumers with a number of tools to protect their privacy. Lawmakers questioned whether tools that Google makes available to help consumers control their privacy were user-friendly and effective.
Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, says Chavez and Yang “danced around actual details, and instead spoke in generalities, highlighting their efforts to ‘enhance the user experience’ — but at what cost?”
Bono Mack said she expects Google to proceed with its planned March 1 change.
Bono Mack wonders why no tracking opt out
Google CEO Larry Page on Friday evening received a strongly-worded letter from Rep. Mary Bono Mack, R-Calif., challenging the privacy policy changes the search giant announced last week.
Starting March 1, Google will be capable, policy-wise, of cross-referencing Internet user activity data compiled from its most popular services, including search, Google Apps, Gmail and YouTube.
And it will be able, policy-wise, to do this across all PC web browsers and any mobile device using the Google Android operating system.
The Congressional letter, which was also signed by Rep. G.K. Butterfield, D- N C, asserts that Google’s policy refinements “give rise to important questions regarding the impact on Google users.” Bono Mack invites Page to appear before the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade to explain the ramifications of the changes.
“These changes might not otherwise be troubling but for one significant change to your terms of service: Google will
Article source: http://rssfeeds.usatoday.com/~r/usatoday-TechTopStories/~3/yI6W2mOT9N4/1
