Google Asks Gov't to Fight Censorship
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By CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER WASHINGTON - Once relatively indifferent to government affairs, Google Inc. is seeking help inside the Beltway to fight the rise of Web censorship worldwide. The online search giant is taking a novel approach to the problem by asking U.S.
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SAN FRANCISCO -- An ethics group is urging Congress to scrutinize Google Inc.'s copyright controls after finding hundreds of apparently pirated movies available on the Internet search leader's Web site.
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China has been accused of blocking access to Google News by the media watchdog, Reporters Without Borders. The Paris-based pressure group said the English-language news site had been unavailable for the past 10 days.
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What? Protecting personal data, Beijing style? Google is recommending that global privacy regulators take a leaf out of Asia's book when they are drawing up the rules.â¦
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Viacom's Philippe Dauman calls for industry-wide technology to block copyright-infringing content, rather than proprietary systems like Google's.
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A right-wing Hindu group has asked  public Internet centers in India to partly block access to  Orkut, and is making a software to monitor abusive communities  on the popular social networking site operated by Google.
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Google responds to attacks on its privacy record.
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WASHINGTON _ Slowly but surely, the government is getting Googled.  Two years ago, the Google staff in Washington was one person _ Alan Davidson, an expert in technology law.
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(InfoWorld) - GoogleÂ has launched a blog focused on U.S. government legislation and regulation, one sign of the company's growing interest in Washington, D.C., affairs. The blog is part of Google's efforts to step up its focus on the U.S. government since early 2005. Last year, it was one of the leading Web-based companiesÂ calling on Congress to pass net neutrality rulesÂ that would prohibit broadband carriers from blocking or slowing Web content offered by their competitors. This year, Google has joined a debate on how the U.S. Federal Communications Commission should auction 60MHz of spectrum in the 700MHz band being vacated by U.S. television stations. Google has called on the FCC toÂ open up biddingÂ to small companies through real-time auctions and designate a chunk of the spectrum for wireless broadband services. Google is also focused on issues such as privacy and copyright protection, said a post on the blog Monday. Google launched the blog internally two months ago but opened it to the public Monday. Google has recentlyÂ complained to the U.S. Department of JusticeÂ about what it sees as antitrust violations in Microsoft's Vista operating system. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission in May also began investigating Google's proposedÂ $3.1 billion purchaseÂ of online advertising seller DoubleClick. Google now has eight senior policy and public relations employees and four support employees in Washington, compared to just one public policy staffer in early 2005. "We're seeking to do public policy advocacy in a Googley way," Andrew McLaughlin, Google's director of public policy and government affairs, wrote on the blog. "We want our users to be part of the effort, to know what we're saying and why, and to help us refine and improve our policy positions and advocacy strategies. With input and ideas from our users, we'll surely do a better job of fighting for our common interests. "This blog is part of the dialogue we're hoping to foster."
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The privacy minister has warned Google Inc. that its Street View application may be illegal in that country.
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Google attacked European parliamentarians and privacy advocates on Monday for trying to have competition authorities consider the handling of personal information in its $3.1 billion takeover of rival DoubleClick.
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(InfoWorld) - The U.S. government still needs to block or impose conditions on Google's acquisition of online advertising server DoubleClick, despite Google's call for global privacy standards, three privacy groups said Monday. Google last Friday called for a global privacy standard, and the company referred to a framework designed by Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC). But the APEC standard is "weak," Melissa Ngo, director of the Identification and Surveillance Project at the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), said during a press conference Monday. The APEC standard "puts the burden on consumers to prove they are being harmed," she said. Google's call for a global privacy standardÂ does not allay concerns that privacy groups have withÂ Google's proposed $3.1 billion purchase of DoubleClick, said Amina Fazlullah, staff attorney with consumer group U.S. Public Interest Research Group (US PIRG). Consolidation in the online advertising market could lead to more demand for consumers' private information, Fazlullah said. In addition, Web sites will have few choices for which vendors to deliver their ads, she said. "The resulting Google company will have a lot of control over what we can actually see, read, and hear about online," Fazlullah said. "That is definitely problematic for consumers, but also for greater democratic concerns." A Google spokesman said the APEC privacy standard is just one model the company has pointed to. Google also supports the U.S. Federal Trade Commission's town hall meeting on the evolving online advertising market, to be held in early November, spokesman Adam Kovacevich said. EPIC's complaints about Google's privacy policies are "unsupported by the facts and the law," Google added in a statement. "Google aggressively protects user privacy, and user trust is central to Google's values and essential to the success of our products," Google said. "We have engaged with numerous privacy and consumer advocates to discuss and explain our acquisition of DoubleClick, but unfortunately EPIC has refused every offer we have made to meet with them. We can only conclude that EPIC would prefer not to be informed about the erroneous claims it is making." But the privacy groups said Google continues to collect a "massive" amount of data about users. "There is no greater threat to competition in the online market and also a threat to privacy than the Google/DoubleClick merger," said Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy. Combining Google's search dominance with DoubleClick's display advertising dominance "will give Google an overwhelming share of control of the online advertising market," he added.
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Google is being taken to task by a UK-based privacy group over its apparent lack of a commitment to the privacy of its users. However, the company is doing what it can do discredit the report.
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The Chinese government is blocking one of Google&#39;s (Quote, Chart) more popular sites, the company confirmed Tuesday. Debbie Frost, a Google spokesperson, told internetnews.
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By Stephen Foley  The American internet company Yahoo! has defended its record on human rights in China, and said it was asking the US government to challenge censorship in the communist country.
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Google Inc. (GOOG)'s recently launched news service in China doesn't display results from Web sites blocked by that country's authorities, raising prickly questions for an online search engine that has famously promised to "do no evil."    Dynamic Internet Technology Inc., a research firm striving to defeat online censorship, conducted tests that found Google omits results from the government-banned sites if search requests are made through computers connecting to the Internet in China...
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The company's slogan may be "Don't be Evil", but Internet giant Google has been hit twice in as many weeks with allegations it doesn't respect users' privacy.