May 2012

[Commentary] In 1999, Scott McNealy, the former head of Sun MicroSystems, reportedly declared, “You have zero privacy anyway….Get over it.” He unintentionally let the proverbial cat out of the bag of the digital age. In 2009, McNealy’s assessment was confirmed by Google’s CEO, Eric Schmidt.

In an interview with NBC’s Mario Bartiromo, he proclaimed, “If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.” Schmidt’s words have become Google’s new mantra. Welcome to 21st-century corporate morality. Now, a decade-plus later, McNealy’s prophetic words have taken on a far more sinister significance than he probably intended. They are increasingly becoming the operating assumption of the digital corporate state. Whether going online, using a PC, smartphone, tablet or digital TV, users can no longer assume they have any privacy. In fact, users should assume they have absolutely no privacy. McNealy’s and Schmidt’s words both speak to a fundamental change in the definition of privacy. Once upon a time not so long ago, a sealed letter or a personal telephone conversation was considered private, protected communications. Those days are over.

Important procedural differences remain in the way the Europeans and Americans conduct their investigations of Google that could create friction as the cases develop. One of the most striking differences is that the European Commission, the European Union executive agency based in Brussels, effectively serves as a prosecutor, judge and jury in antitrust investigations. The commission can directly order changes to the ways companies run their businesses, including requiring major divestitures, and setting fines of more than $1 billion without filing a lawsuit and without the prior authority of a judge. If Google fails to reach a settlement and disagrees with any eventual decision by Competition Commissioner Joaquín Almunia, the company could bring an appeal at the General Court, the second highest tribunal in the Union that is based in Luxembourg. But Google would only be able to do so once it was found guilty. Google also could make a final appeal to the European Court of Justice, the highest tribunal that shares the same building as the General Court. In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission and the Antitrust Division of the Justice Department both must win antitrust cases in court before applying any punishments or ordering divestitures.

Employees at eyeglasses designer Michael Pachleitner Group have no reason to consult desktop computers, tablets or old-fashioned paper binders to find items in their 22,000 square-foot warehouse. The information is right in front of their faces. The Austrian company recently outfitted warehouse workers with a head-mounted device that displays digital information on a clear lens over one of the eyes. The lens gives visual directions through a Wi-Fi connection to the 1.4 million items stored in the vast warehouse. It also confirms they made the right pick, and frees up their hands. By July, the company's six warehouse pickers will be wearing the device all day, cutting down on picking errors by an estimated 60%, said Chief Financial Officer Neil Lambert. "We were skeptical in the beginning" about the device, which reminded him of military gadgets seen in movies. "It was a nice surprise to see that it works."

The Ad Council is making broadband literacy and adoption a priority public service announcement (PSA) campaign. The government-industry partnership Connect2Compete will team with the Ad Council on the campaign, which will launch in January with a multilingual, multimedia and multiyear effort to close the broadband adoption gap. The three-year campaign will be in both English and Spanish. Broadband adoption rates are lower for Spanish-speakers than the general population.