Consumer Watchdog Gets Its Wish – FTC, EU to Investigate Google’s Violation of … News from Daily Disruption:
By Duane Barnhart | @dailydisrupt | March 17th, 2012
Consumer Watchdog welcomed reports on Friday confirming that the Federal Trade Commission and European regulators are investigating Google for violating the online privacy choices of consumers using the Safari web browser on Apple computers, iPhones and iPads. In a letter last month, Consumer Watchdog said that Google was lying to consumers and called on the FTC to act.
Read Consumer Watchdog’s letter to the FTC here: http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/resources/ltrleibowitz021712.pdf
“Google engineers are playing fast and loose with the public’s private information, and FTC action is critical to make them understand that if they don’t respect Google’s promises to the public there will be consequences,” said Carmen Balber, Consumer Watchdog’s Washington D.C. director. “Google has more information about Internet users than any company in the world, and uses that informatio…………… continues on Daily Disruption
. Scam reports double for second year News from The Age:
AUSTRALIANS have been warned to be more vigilant after the number of scams reported to the consumer watchdog doubled for the second consecutive year.
A new report to be released today by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission shows it received more than 83,000 reports of scams from consumers and small businesses last year, almost double the number lodged in 2010.
The total amount of money lost to scams in 2011 was more than $ 85 million — up 35 per cent from the previous year, although the real amount could be much higher given many scam losses go unreported.
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More than half of the scams reported to the consumer watchdog were initiated with a phone call. Photo: Lisa Iley
The report also shows a significant shift in the way scammers w…………… continues on The Age