Federal Trade Commission Should Extend Google Buzz Settlement Terms to All Google Properties

[Commentary] In comments filed with the Federal Trade Commission, the Center for Digital Democracy called for the conditions imposed on Google as a result of its proposed Google Buzz settlement to extend as well to the company’s vast online advertising holdings.

Under that settlement, Google agreed to refrain from future privacy misrepresentations, to implement a “comprehensive privacy program,” and to submit to regular, independent privacy audits for the next 20 years. These conditions, the CDD’s comment made clear, must apply with equal force to such Google holdings as the Google Content Network, DoubleClick, DoubleClick Ad Exchange, Admob and its related mobile ad services, Invite Media, and Teracent. The FTC, according to the CDD, should examine each “certified” partner that Google permits to operate on its Content Network, for example, and then order those companies to provide consumers with both accurate information and control over what and how their data are collected and used. So, too, should the dozens of data-mining companies that Google has certified, and that engage in real-time ad exchange sales of users, social media surveillance, and behavioral targeting and retargeting, be held to the new FTC-sanctioned privacy safeguards. CDD’s filing offered numerous examples of privacy-related data collection practices undertaken by Google and its subsidiaries and affiliates in both the online and mobile arenas. The Google/DoubleClick Ad Exchange, for example, “must be required to adopt a range of additional privacy and consumer protection safeguards.” CDD urged the FTC to also ensure that Google, under the decree, develop safeguards addressing neuromarketing, the targeting of Hispanics and other multicultural groups, and adolescents.