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

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

)
)
Google, Inc.
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)
____________________________________)
Complaint, Request for Investigation, Injunction, and Other Relief
I. Introduction
1. 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. 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. These
business practices are Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices, subject to review by the
Federal Trade Commission (the “Commission”) under section 5 of the Federal Trade
Commission Act.
2. These business practices impact more than 37 million users of Gmail who fall within the
jurisdiction of the United States Federal Trade Commission. 1
3. EPIC urges the Commission to investigate Google, determine the extent of the harm to
consumer privacy and safety, require Google to provide Gmail users with opt-in consent
to the Google Buzz service, require Google to give Gmail users meaningful control over
personal information, require Google to provide notice to and request consent from
Gmail users before making material changes to their privacy policy in the future, and
seek appropriate injunctive and compensatory relief.

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Erick Schonfeld, Gmail Nudges Past AOL Email in the U.S. to Take No. 3 Spot, TechCrunch (Aug. 14, 2009),
http://techcrunch.com/2009/08/14/gmail-nudges-past-aol-email-in-the-us-to-take-no-3-spot/.

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