Judge Dumps EPIC's Ridiculous Lawsuit Trying To Force FTC To Stop Google's Privacy Policy Changes
from the not-how-it-works dept
As was pretty much expected after the FTC pointed out to privacy zealots EPIC that it had no standing to sue the FTC to force it to stop Google from changing its privacy policy, a federal court has dismissed EPIC's silly lawsuit. Without delving into the specifics of the privacy policy change, the court basically says that it has no power to compel the FTC to do an investigation. EPIC plans to appeal.I'm really at a loss over EPIC's strategy here. No matter what you think of Google's privacy policy change (and I'm not a fan, though I think it's been blown out of proportion by some, including EPIC), pissing off the FTC (who has said it may still do its own investigation) seems like a pretty silly move, unlikely to do any good whatsoever.
In this case, plaintiff cannot point to any indication that Congress intended courts to monitor the FTC’s enforcement of its own consent decrees; the statute is devoid of any “law to apply” or “guidelines” that would signal that judicial review may be undertaken or that set out the governing standards.Why not just let the FTC do what it thinks is appropriate. And, if you don't like Google's privacy policies... um... maybe don't use it?
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Filed Under: privacy, privacy policies
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Google Hate
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I agree with Matt T. Please run an article on their privacy policy and them scr*wing with Safari and Explorer to circumvent my privacy settings...
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Re:
Google has been teetering on the edge of having the government look much more closely at them and their business models. While Mike may mock the Google Maps decision in France, it is one of those thing that shows that perhaps not everything is right.
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Google tracks you even if you don't use Google websites
Merely avoiding Google websites only eliminates about a quarter of Google's capacity to track you - and that fraction drops every time Google rolls out another initiative like Android or Web Fonts.
Google is almost certain to have data about every Web user in existence. Their privacy policy applies, even if you never voluntarily used a Google site. They have thoroughly "mined" the computing and communcations infrastructure, and whenever you hit one of those mines, Google notices. And, of course, if NSA wants to look for you anywhere in the world, they can just wiretap Google's fibers, since Google is so likely to notice when you reappear, before anybody else does.
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