Google is facing the wrath of privacy advocates once again over concerns that it’s not posting its privacy policy “conspicuously” enough to comply with California law. On Tuesday, a coalition of groups that have questioned Google’s practices in the past sent a four-paragraph letter to CEO Eric Schmidt, charging that “Google’s reluctance to post a link to its privacy policy on its home page is alarming.”
Eric Schmidt was doing his level best late last week not to gloat. With Microsoft dropping its attempted takeover of Yahoo, the Google chief executive had just seen his arch-rival abandon its most direct attack yet on Google’s growing dominance of online search and advertising.
Everyone is familiar with Google’s famous catchphrase, “Don’t be evil.” It has become a shorthand mission statement for Silicon Valley, encompassing a variety of ideals that—proponents say—are good for business and good for the world: Embrace open platforms. Trust decisions to the wisdom of crowds. Treat your employees like gods.
It’s ironic, then, that one of the Valley’s most successful companies ignored all of these tenets. Google and Apple may have a friendly relationship—Google CEO Eric Schmidt sits on Apple’s board, after all—but by Google’s definition, Apple is irredeemably evil, behaving more like an old-fashioned industrial titan than a different-thinking business of the future.
After reviewing the Google proxy, Henry Blodget asks a reasonable question: How did Eric Schmidt spend $474,662 on security last year? One answer: By spending $58,093 less than he did the year before.
Or is the Google CEO crazy like a fox? He certainly has been talking some crazy smack lately about Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Yahoo, as in [his] recent exchange in Portfolio, in which he suggests that a Microsoft/Yahoo combo might “break the Internet.”
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