Buzz

An action brought by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (“EPIC”) asking that the FTC be compelled to enforce its Google Buzz consent order (previously described, here) was dismissed by Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, who held that “enforcement decisions are committed to agency discretion and are not subject to judicial review.”

EPIC contended that Google’s announced changes to its user privacy policies for all of its services, scheduled to take effect on March 1, 2012, would violate various portions of the consent order Google reached with the FTC regarding its former social networking service Google Buzz by “altering the use of personal information” obtained by users and “consolidat[ing] user data from across [Google’s] services and creat[ing] a single merged profile for each user.”Continue Reading No Federal Court Jurisdiction to Review FTC Enforcement of Google Buzz Consent Decree, Judge Rules

Following a public comment period that began in March of this year, the Federal Trade Commission has accepted as final a settlement with Google relating to the social network “Buzz” product that was launched in 2010.  (For more details about the Buzz product and its launch see Inside Privacy’s prior post, here).  As the Commission’s press release states, “The settlement resolves charges that Google used deceptive tactics and violated its own privacy promises to consumers when it launched its social network, Google Buzz . . . .”

The Commission voted 4-0  to approve the settlement, which imposes numerous requirements on Google, including:Continue Reading Google Buzz FTC Settlement Accepted