Consumer Watchdog Attacks Google in Times Square

By Jennifer LeClaire

Consumer Watchdog is calling attention to what it says is Google's about-face on privacy with a parody of CEO Eric Schmidt on a Jumbotron in New York's Times Square. Schmidt is portrayed as spying on children as Consumer Watchdog pushes for a Do Not Track Me list. Consumer Watchdog is using dark humor instead of data that bores consumers.

Consumer Watchdog is attacking Google in a very public way -- with a Jumbotron digital advertisement in New York's Times Square. The missive comes in the form of an animated satirical video that portrays how the group sees Google CEO Eric Schmidt's stance on consumer privacy.

Entitled Don't Be Evil? the avatar-style animation features Schmidt driving an ice-cream truck and secretly spying on children. Consumer Watchdog produced the animated short in hopes of enticing Congress to enact a national Do Not Track Me list.

"We're satirizing Schmidt in the most highly trafficked public square in the nation to make the public aware of how out of touch Schmidt and Google are when it comes to our privacy rights," said Jamie Court, president of Consumer Watchdog. "America needs a Do Not Track Me list, and Google is Exhibit A in the case for it."

Do Not Track Me

As Consumer Watchdog sees it, Google's recent actions reveal that the Internet giant, whose motto is "Don't be evil," has lost its way. The group argues that Google has collected massive amounts of personal data from Wi-Fi networks through its Street View cars, made private Gmail contacts publicly available on Buzz, and done a complete about-face on Net neutrality, joining with Verizon in calling for toll lanes on the Internet.

"We think there should be another way to protect the public's online privacy: A Do Not Track Me list that prevents Google or any other Internet company from tracking your every move online," said John Simpson, director of Consumer Watchdog's Inside Google Project.

Consumer Watchdog argues that a Do Not Track Me list would prevent online companies from gathering personal information, just as Congress had the Federal Trade Commission create a Do Not Call list to prevent intrusive telemarketers from invading consumers' privacy.

Google Not the Worst

"This largely satirical short film tries to argue for a 'do not track' -- similar to Do Not Call -- list for online advertising," said Greg Sterling, principal analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence. "The cookie and tracking debate has mostly been technical and elusive to ordinary consumers so far. But they generally do express discomfort about being tracked when asked in surveys."

According to Sterling, there are many people in online advertising who argue that when consumers understand the benefits of cookies -- convenience, personalization, ad relevance -- they're more receptive. There's some support for this argument.

"This anti-Google short tries to use dark humor and make a more emotional argument to consumers versus explanations about how cookies and ad targeting works. The ad is ultimately not just about Google, but online advertising in general. However, Google is a visible and obvious target," Sterling said. "The problem with that is that Google has actually been much better in many cases around user privacy and transparency with ad targeting than its competitors."

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