Consumer, Privacy Groups File FTC Complaint Against Google, Which Denies Wrongdoing

Google allegedly violated the law and a consent agreement when it changed its privacy policy June 28 to permit combining users' personally identifiable information with DoubleClick browsing data, which the search company said it wouldn't do when it acquired the now-subsidiary nearly a decade ago (see 0712210173), said Consumer Watchdog and Privacy Rights Clearinghouse in an FTC complaint filed Monday. The complaint said Google "forced the change on users in a highly deceptive manner, without meaningful notice and consent. The change marked the culmination of a nearly decade-long deception that Google has perpetrated against its users, the FTC, and the public at large." The groups are asking the FTC to claw back all advertising revenue Google earned since the privacy policy change in June. “Fines Google has faced so far are but pocket change for Google. The company’s executives consider it merely the cost of doing business as they willfully violate our privacy,” said Consumer Watchdog Privacy Project Director John Simpson in a news release. “The FTC must take meaningful action to stop this serial abuser and force it to give up its ill-gotten gains.” The company emailed that it updated its ads systems and related user controls "to match the way people use Google today: across many different devices. Before we launched this update, we tested it around the world with the goal of understanding how to provide users with clear choice and transparency. As a result, it is 100% optional -- if users do not opt-in to these changes, their Google experience will remain unchanged. Equally important: we provided prominent user notifications about this change in easy-to-understand language as well as simple tools that let users control or delete their data." Google also noted it pre-briefed regulators on the changes.