Watchdog Group Slams Google on Privacy

[babylonsister]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20070609/google-privacy/

Watchdog Group Slams Google on Privacy

MICHAEL LIEDTKE

SAN FRANCISCO — Google Inc.'s privacy practices are the worst among the Internet's top destinations, according to a watchdog group seeking to intensify the recent focus on how the online search leader handles personal information about its users.

In a report released Saturday, London-based Privacy International assigned Google its lowest possible grade. The category is reserved for companies with "comprehensive consumer surveillance and entrenched hostility to privacy."

None of the 22 other surveyed companies _ a group that included Yahoo Inc., Microsoft Corp. and AOL _ sunk to that level, according to Privacy International.

While a number of other Internet companies have troubling policies, none comes as close to Google to "achieving status as an endemic threat to privacy," Privacy International said in an explanation of its findings.

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[snappyturtle]

1. I think I'll quit using Google....what's the next best search engine?

Thanks for posting this...it's important! K&R

[babylonsister]

2. I honestly don't know; maybe someone will chime in. I also use google,

but would be willing to change.

[Norrin Radd]

5. Scroogle

http://www.scroogle.org/

The search bar is here:

http://www.scroogle.org/cgi-bin/scraper.htm

from Google Watch

http://www.google-watch.org/

[progressoid]

3. I hate the layout of Yahoo. What other alternatives are people using?

[Norrin Radd]

6. The minimal version of Yahoo! is here:

http://search.yahoo.com/

[progressoid]

7. That's more like it. Thanks.

[Akoto]

4. As far as the DoubleClick concern goes ...

Use Firefox, and get the NoScript add-on. It blocks many, many bad things from ever running unless you permit them to. I see it asking me about DoubleClick all the time. :)