[LINK] Federal police asked to probe Google

[Craig Sanders]

On Sun, Jun 06, 2010 at 05:11:14PM +1000, community at thoughtmaybe.com wrote:
> Federal police asked to probe Google
> http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/06/06/2919491.htm
> 
> The Federal Government has asked the Australian Federal Police to
> investigate internet giant Google over alleged privacy breaches.
>
> Last month, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy labelled Google
> "creepy" and accused the company of committing the "single greatest
> breach in the history of privacy" when it collected information from
> wireless (wi-fi) networks.

isn't it great for politicians when they have an opportunity
to beat their chests about how great they are on privacy issues,
without the risk of achieving a single thing?

it's like the beating the Law 'n Order drum.  makes the voters
happy, without doing any good.

if Conroy, or McClelland care so much about privacy, how about they give
some legislative teeth (and fangs and claws) to the Do Not Call register.
and remove the exemptions for charity and political phone-spammers too.

> Google says it mistakenly collected the data and has apologised.
>
> Australian Attorney General Robert McClelland says his department has
> received numerous complaints and he has asked the Federal Police to
> investigate possible criminal breaches.

i wonder if the "numerous complaints" were all from conroy, who's a bit
annoyed with google because of:

> Google has been a critic of Senator Conroy's proposed mandatory
> internet filter, saying it could affect user speeds and accidentally
> filter legitimate material.

well, that certainly couldn't have anything to do with the AFP
investigation, could it? that would be an abuse of power.

craig

-- 
craig sanders <cas at taz.net.au>