The FTC, in the consent agreement press release included this statement; “Google Inc. has agreed to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that it used deceptive tactics and violated its own privacy promises to consumers when it launched its social network, Google Buzz, in 2010. The agency alleges the practices violate the FTC Act.” “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."
The Federal Trade Commission deserves praise for its follow through as there was an extended period of time since the first user complaint was received and in addition to all the legal achievements, to come out with such strong language in the settlement. Google deserves praise for apologizing in such a straight forward and candid language, not passing the buck and acknowledging wrong doing. Now we can say, after all, Google is Google, and the winner is the user’s privacy.
Article comments
1 - Peter
The google always has violated and continues to violate the privacy of users, the clearest example of this is the browser, "Chrome" that captures the sites you visit, this is a lack of respect, because has no option when you install it or already is installed to remove, he never even told this would happen, I know they want to improve your search results, but in my opinion transparency to the user is one thing essencial. Hug!