Hibnick v. Google Inc.

Filing 121

OBJECTIONS to re 120 Proposed Order by Electronic Privacy Information Center. (Attachments: # 1 Appendix 1, # 2 Appendix 2, # 3 Appendix 3, # 4 Appendix 4, # 5 Appendix 5, # 6 Appendix 6, # 7 Appendix 7, # 8 Appendix 8, # 9 Appendix 9, # 10 Appendix 10, # 11Appendix 12, # 12 Appendix 13, # 13 Appendix 11)(Friedman, Philip) (Filed on 3/30/2011) Modified on 4/1/2011 (cv, COURT STAFF).

Appendix 12 – EPIC’s FTC Feb. 16, 2010 Amended Complaint in re: Google Buzz

Before the
Federal Trade Commission
Washington, DC
In the Matter of

)
)
Google, Inc.
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____________________________________)
Supplemental Materials in Support of Pending Complaint and Request for Injunction,
Request for Investigation and for Other Relief
INTRODUCTION
1. On February 16, 2010, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (“EPIC”) filed a Complaint
with the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC” or “Commission”) requesting an injunction and
investigation.1 The Complaint concerned the practices of Google, Inc., specifically the recent
launch of the company’s Buzz social networking service. As Petitioners stated in the original
complaint:
This complaint concerns an attempt by Google, Inc., the provider of a widely used
email service to convert the private, personal information of Gmail subscribers
into public information for the company’s social network service Google Buzz.2
2. The Petitioners described the importance of email privacy, the release of Google Buzz,
Google’s disclosure of users’ email contacts, user opposition to the recent transformation of
Google’s Gmail service into a social networking service, and violations of Section 5 of the
FTC Act, including Google’s deceptive and unfair trade practices. The Petitioners
concluded:
This change in business practices and service terms violated user privacy
expectations, diminished user privacy, contradicted Google’s own privacy policy,
and may have also violated federal wiretap laws. In some instances, there were
clear harms to service subscribers.3

1

EPIC FTC Complaint, In re Google Buzz (Feb. 16, 2009), available at
http://epic.org/privacy/ftc/googlebuzz/GoogleBuzz_Complaint.pdf.
2
Id. at 1.
3
Id.

1