Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, PRIVACY NEWS: Consumer Group Asks FTC, California AG to Enforce Google’s Privacy Consent Order, (Feb 27, 2013)

By Lynn Stanton

Consumer Watchdog has asked the Federal Trade Commission to take action against Google, Inc., over what the group says are violations of the FTC’s consent order settling the agency’s investigation into privacy concerns over the launch of Google’s social network.

The alleged violations, which relate to purchaser information provided to apps vendors on the Google Play site, should trigger “a fine in the billions of dollars,” based on a $16,000 fine for each purchase on the site, according to John Simpson, director of Consumer Watchdog’s Privacy Project.

Consumer Watchdog is also suggesting that the new privacy concerns could be a violation of California privacy law as well, and has asked the California Office of Attorney General to investigate.

The information passed along, according to Mr. Simpson, includes purchasers’ names, e-mail addresses, and physical addresses, which the purchasers provided when signing up for Google Wallet, which is used for payment on the Google Play site. “No other app store does this,” Mr. Simpson said, adding that Consumer Watchdog learned about the practice from apps developers who said they didn’t need the information and didn’t understand why they were getting it.

A Google spokesperson said, “Google Wallet shares the information needed to process transactions and maintain accounts, and this is clearly stated in the Google Wallet Privacy Notice. It’s fully compliant with the law and our consent decree.”

Mr. Simpson called this statement in the privacy notice “arcane information” and suggested that a physical address is not needed to complete a transaction involving digital goods. “Google should be the custodian of this information. They hold themselves out to be that,” he said.

An FTC spokesperson confirmed the agency had received the letter from Consumer Watchdog but declined to comment on it, in accordance with agency practice.

Consumer Watchdog has criticized the FTC in the past for not taking strong enough action against Google. It asked the federal district court in San Francisco last year to reject the FTC’s proposed $22.5 million settlement of the agency’s investigation of Google’s alleged misrepresentations about its use of “tracking” cookies with Apple, Inc.’s Safari browsers.

Companies: Google, Inc.

News: Privacy ConsumerProtection FederalTradeCommissionNews