Judge Urged To Release Documents About Google's Cellphone Tracking (tucson.com) 20
Eight weeks ago Arizona's attorney general sued Google for allegedly deceiving users about when location data would be collected from their phones, tracking them without their clear consent.
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Now an Arizona congressman and more than two dozen researchers from institutions including Yale, MIT, and Cornell are urging a judge to publicly release the documents collected during that investigation: The documents at issue relate directly to debates going on in Washington, Republican U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs told a Maricopa County Superior Court judge... "All branches of our government exist to protect the fundamental liberties of our citizens — especially their privacy,'' Biggs said. "The public has a strong interest in transparency and learning the full extent to which Google and other tech companies may be spying and surreptitiously collecting information from Arizonans, including constituents whom I represent..."
[T]he judge will have to consider arguments filed Friday by Assistant Attorney General Beau Roysden asking Thomason to ignore a bid by Google to keep the documents secret or, at the very least, delay a decision while the company tries to have the entire lawsuit thrown out. "Google's requested delay would unconstitutionally impair the right of public access that is guaranteed by both the First Amendment and the Arizona Constitution,'' Roysden told the judge... He pointed out that the records at issue the records that Google provided to the Attorney General's Office under what's called a "civil investigatory demand'' are part of the complaint filed with the court...
So far, Roysden said, the company has presented no good reason for keeping most of these sealed. More to the point, he argues that it's really too late for Google to do anything about it as it is now part of the court record.
Now an Arizona congressman and more than two dozen researchers from institutions including Yale, MIT, and Cornell are urging a judge to publicly release the documents collected during that investigation: The documents at issue relate directly to debates going on in Washington, Republican U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs told a Maricopa County Superior Court judge... "All branches of our government exist to protect the fundamental liberties of our citizens — especially their privacy,'' Biggs said. "The public has a strong interest in transparency and learning the full extent to which Google and other tech companies may be spying and surreptitiously collecting information from Arizonans, including constituents whom I represent..."
[T]he judge will have to consider arguments filed Friday by Assistant Attorney General Beau Roysden asking Thomason to ignore a bid by Google to keep the documents secret or, at the very least, delay a decision while the company tries to have the entire lawsuit thrown out. "Google's requested delay would unconstitutionally impair the right of public access that is guaranteed by both the First Amendment and the Arizona Constitution,'' Roysden told the judge... He pointed out that the records at issue the records that Google provided to the Attorney General's Office under what's called a "civil investigatory demand'' are part of the complaint filed with the court...
So far, Roysden said, the company has presented no good reason for keeping most of these sealed. More to the point, he argues that it's really too late for Google to do anything about it as it is now part of the court record.
Why? (Score:1)
And before everybody blurts out "That's great! Get all these people I hate off the Internet!" stop and think about the effects of having that much actual knowledge re
Re:Why? (Score:5, Insightful)
I pay $2/month for email. I use an Office suite from 2003, but there are free ones out there. What Google software is worth thousands of dollars to you?
And, if some random stranger on the street offered you a few thousand to record your every movement, call, text, and email indefinitely, would you take them up on it? Is it really a fair trade?
When I got my first Java phone (Score:2)
Then there's Maps. Offline map programs in the 90s sold for hundreds of dollars. And didn't do 1/10th what Maps does.
Oh, and Youtube. Vast amounts of useful information there. Everybody focuses on the cat videos and ignore the tutorials. It's also lead to an entire world of independent Journalism that wouldn't be possible without free video hosting.
And, well, there's Google.com. And Google Translate. And a ton of Camera
Re: (Score:2)
You think the "$$ worth of free software" is worth it. I don't. But that's not the point at all, and for you to pretend it IS is pure shill.
You and I know Google tracks everything, but Joe Average does not, and he has a reasonable expectation that when he explicitly says "Don't track my location etc" Google will actually ABIDE by that setting. They don't, they've repeatedly lied about it, and repeatedly been shown to be guilty of both of those things.
So yeah, the AG has not just every right to after go them
Joe Average wouldn't care if they knew (Score:1)
Meanwhile we've seen record mergers & acquisitions as a result of zero anti-trust law enforcement, we've got secret policy in Portland OR and step back from partisanship for a minute and consider the constitutional implications of the President commuting Rodger Stone's sentence.
I'm saying this is bullshit. The AG is just going after Google because it'll
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I get hundreds if not thousands of dollars worth free software. It's a fair trade,
Your post sounds more like a submission to "Hail corporate" than like a reasoned argument.
Even if you did get "hundreds of dollars etc.", it's not a fair trade as long as you don't know exactly what you're paying for it. Does Google tell you what data they're collecting about you, from what sources, and what's the value they're getting from your data? Do you have a mechanism that lets you walk back from this trade, stop using Google software and in exchange, have them stop tracking you and delete all data t
Go read my post history (Score:1)
Google's abuses are pretty minor and if we regulate other aspects of our economy completely harmless. Worrying about Google is like fixing the rain gutters on a 3 alarm fire.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm more or less /.'s #1 lefty, stopping short of post-Capitalist Marxism but getting pretty close.
In my experience, leftists tend to be suspicious of private corporations, just as rightists tend to be suspicious of governments. Yet, while professing yourself nearly a Marxist, you post paeans of praise for Google, one of the most dangerous currently existing companies?
Google's technology can (and is) easily used to advance goals diametrically opposed to leftist ideals. Think how Google owns all information about you and how it controls the information you get to see (by presenting you filtered searches,
Re: Why? (Score:1)
That's stupid. I use software every day that could cost thousands of dollars without paying a single penny. It is called free (as in freedom, but also as in beer) software (Linux, you know). Nobody is tracking me without my consent on Debian, and nobody should be tracking you without your consent on any platform.
Re: (Score:3)
You do not get to decide what is fair for anyone but yourself.
No, I do (Score:2)
If this was mathematics we're talking about yeah, I don't get to decide. But it's not, it's a subjective opinion.
Also, I remember the days when software wasn't ad supported and how much it cost. Folks seem to have either forgotten that or are too young to remember.
Re: (Score:2)
I never said you couldn't hold that opinion, however because you used the pronoun "we" when you began your statement, it sounded like you were attempting to speak for everyone. I personally do not think it's a fair trade because I assign a much higher value to my privacy than I do to Google's software.
There is still a lot of software which isn't ad supported or crippleware and it is the only kind I will ever use.
Socializing the development of software? (Score:2)
No, it's commercialising the very detailed surveillance of people, and selling very intimate inferences derived by data analysis of millions of people. Your business should remain your business.
Re: (Score:3)
I get much more valuable software for free from Debian and they don't track me at all. I was able to download Linux before Google even existed.
This is about Google, not the internet as a whole. They do provide something of value in return, but they lie about how much they take in payment. It's like you decided a dollar was a fair price for a small coffee and then the shop owner sneaks an extra 5 out of your wallet while the barista distracts you.
This is the judge being urged to reveal how much the coffee AC
You know a lot of the code in Debian (Score:2)
Also, the value of Debian doesn't negate the value of google. They're complementary. Debian doesn't, for example, replace Google Maps, Google Translate, Android, the Android SDK, Gmail, Google Docs, Google Voice, Google.com, and a thousand other bits of software I can't think of off the top of my head.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm just providing a comparison of value for price. Some Google engineers have contributed some code to various projects Debian offers in the distro, but it's not a huge amount.
The point stands though, that if they say the price is X but it's really 5x, that's a problem and a little disclosure would be a good thing. Let people know the real price so they can decide if it's a fair trade or not for themselves.
Google needs a better top level manager? (Score:2)
The irony is strong with this one (Score:1)