WebProNews

Consumers at risk, says Marc Rotenberg

In an FTC filing in the US about Ask.com, and testimony before the European Parliament about Google's DoubleClick acquisition, the Electronic Privacy Information Center complained of the potential threat to individual online privacy.

The AskEraser tool sounds like a good idea on its surface. Turn it on, and the search engine won't keep one's search activity on its servers after a few hours. No other major search engine offers a similar product.

EPIC thinks AskEraser has problems. A number of groups joined EPIC in filing a complaint with the FTC about AskEraser.

They claim Ask.com engages in unfair and deceptive trade practices regarding AskEraser. Their concerns center on the use of cookies in managing AskEraser's privacy feature, how information passes through Ask to Google, and the potential for AskEraser to be silently disabled for a user who otherwise believes it is active.

"EPIC’s filing is flawed in the sense that the document they filed is factually inaccurate, and simply shows a fundamental misunderstanding of the functionality of our product," Ask.com spokesperson Nicholas Graham said in an email to WebProNews.

"Many of the issues they raise are outdated, while others are completely misguided from the outset, and others deal with changes that Ask.com already made to AskEraser weeks ago, and were subsequently posted publicly on our website."

In Brussels, EPIC president Marc Rotenberg, an adjunct professor at Georgetown Law, testified before a European Parliament committee about Google's proposed purchase of ad network DoubleClick.

EPIC's privacy complaints about DoubleClick go back years, and they tie in to Google today. In this latest episode, Rotenberg said Google's activities constitute deceptive trade practices, injures consumers by invading their privacy, and leaving people vulnerable to law enforcement surveillance without a legal basis.

"The detailed profiling of Internet users violates the fundamental rights of individuals, diminishes the accountability of large corporations, and threatens the operation of democratic governments," said Rotenberg.