A coalition of leading privacy groups urged the public to push for industrywide adoption of the tough online data protection terms the government imposed on Google as part of a recent settlement of complaints about its Buzz social network.

Google agreed to new measures to protect consumer data that include adopting a sweeping privacy policy and submitting to independent audits for the next 20 years to ensure that the company is following the rules. It was the first time the Federal Trade Commission required a company to enact a broad privacy policy.

The agency said it hoped other Internet companies would adopt the new standards. And on Thursday privacy advocates urged people to lobby for that as part of the agency's public comment period, which ends May 2.

"Even though public comments are about Google’s practices, they’re going to be sending a much larger message to all online companies about honoring their privacy policies," said Beth Givens, director of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse.

Privacy groups have launched an effort called Fix Google Privacy to put pressure on the Internet search giant to improve its practices for handling consumer information. Among the changes they want is for Google to delete user search histories and to endorse a do-not-track requirement for Web browsers so that people could prevent their online activities from being followed by advertisers and other companies.

"I think Google is thinking it can get away with doing the bare minimum," to comply with the settlement, said Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy. "That’s why this public comment period is so important. We’re not going to let Google off easy here."

Google triggered "a huge wave of privacy concern" when it launched its Buzz social network last year, said Marc Rotenberg, president of the Electronic Privacy Information Center. Google promoted Buzz to its Gmail users, and many of them unwittingly agreed to make public their email contacts when they signed up. Others thought they had chosen not to join, only to find out that they had.

EPIC filed a complaint with the FTC, leading to what privacy experts have hailed as a landmark settlement with Google that will put pressure on other online companies to follow suit. Google has admitted problems with the launch of Buzz, saying it "fell short of our usual standards for transparency and user control."

The public comment period is an opportunity for the public to push for detailed requirements in the settlement to ensure it protects consumer privacy, Rotenberg said. It's also a rare chance for people to "make it clear how important privacy is to them and demand it be protected," said John Simpson, director of the Privacy Project at Consumer Watchdog, an advocacy group.

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-- Jim Puzzanghera

Two leading U.S. senators introduced bipartisan privacy legislation Tuesday to safeguard consumer information online, aiming to prevent the misuse of personal data while not squelching the advertising that fuels the Internet economy.

Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.), who both have a history of working on technology issues, said their Commercial Privacy Bill of Rights would protect Americans' personal information as it is increasingly shared between online companies.

"Right now there is no law protecting the information that we share. Companies can harvest our personal information online and keep it for as long as they like it," Kerry told reporters in Washington. "They can sell it without asking permission, or even letting you know that they're selling your own information. You shouldn't have to be a computer genius in order to be able to opt out of information sharing."

The bill would give consumers certain rights concerning their online data, and require companies to take steps to protect the data and obtain permission to share it.

Companies that collect consumer data would have to provide clear notice on their practices.

Those would include requiring consumers to provide clear consent -- known as opt-in -- for the collection of "sensitive, personally identifiable information." Companies also would have to allow consumers either to access and correct their information or request that the information not be used or distributed.

The legislation would allow the Federal Trade Commission to approve so-called "safe-harbor" programs -- voluntary efforts that companies could design and establish on their own to comply with the legislation.

The bill also would require state attorneys general to back off on enforcing the legislation when the FTC steps in to take action against a violator. And Kerry and McCain would prohibit private lawsuits based on the law.

The senators said they were trying to strike the right balance.

"Our bill seeks to respect the ability of businesses to advertise and market and recruit new customers while also respecting consumers'[ personal information," McCain said, noting that many consumers enjoy receiving targeted advertisements and visiting websites that are free because they are supported by ads. "But consumers must have control over how their data is used when it is transferred to an unknown third party."

Kerry and McCain said that Microsoft Corp., Intel Corp. and EBay supported the bill, as did some consumer groups. The Obama administration has called for Congress to pass comprehensive online privacy legislation.

Noticeably missing from the bill is a requirement for a do-not-track mechanism in Web browsers, similar to the do-not-call list for telemarketers, that would give consumers the ability to stop companies from tracking their online movements. Kerry and McCain said they anticipated that other senators might try to add such a requirement, but they felt the opt-in requirements on companies were sufficient to protect consumer information.

In a letter to the senators, five consumer groups said they welcomed the new legislation, one of several privacy bills introduced or expected this year. But they said the Kerry/McCain legislation was "insufficient" to protect consumers and needed to be strengthened.

"We strongly believe that any privacy bill should direct the Federal Trade Commission to
require and enforce a 'Do Not Track Me' mechanism," said the letter from Consumer Watchdog, the Center for Digital Democracy, Consumer Action, Privacy Rights Clearinghouse and Privacy Times. "Consumers should have the right to use the Internet and mobile devices with confidence that their privacy choices are respected, and with anonymity if they choose."

-- Jim Puzzanghera in Washington

Photo: Sens. John Kerry, left, and John McCain discuss their online privacy legislation. Credit: European Pressphoto Agency

Microsoft Corp. said it was filing a formal antitrust complaint in Europe against Google Inc., alleging the Internet giant is squelching competition by limiting access to some of its data from YouTube and other services.

The complaint will be filed as part of the European Commission's ongoing antitrust investigation, launched in November, into whether Google has abused its dominance in Internet search there at the expense of rivals.

Microsoft said it was the first time it had ever filed an antitrust complaint against a rival, another salvo in a bitter, long-running battle between the two technology titans.

"Google has done much to advance its laudable mission to 'organize the world’s information,' but we’re concerned by a broadening pattern of conduct aimed at stopping anyone else from creating a competitive alternative," Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith wrote in a blog post. "We’ve therefore decided to join a large and growing number of companies registering their concerns about the European search market."

He said European regulators have found that Google has about 95% of the search market there and has taken advantage of that dominance "to the detriment of European consumers."

Google has restricted the ability of Microsoft's Bing and other rival search engines to gather data from YouTube needed to properly display search results, Smith said. Google also has blocked smartphones running Microsoft's Windows software from operating properly with YouTube -- problems that iPhones and phones with Google's Android software do not have, he said.

"Microsoft is ready to release a high-quality YouTube app for Windows Phone," Smith said. "We just need permission to access YouTube in the way that other phones already do, permission Google has refused to provide."

Smith cited four other examples of what he said was Google abusing its European search dominance, including limiting the ability of advertisers to access the data they give to Google so that they can also serve ads through competitors.

Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

[Updated at 7:53 a.m.: Google issued the following statement in response to the complaint: "We're not surprised that Microsoft has done this, since one of their subsidiaries was one of the original complainants. For our part, we continue to discuss the case with the European Commission and we're happy to explain to anyone how our business works."]

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Google to toughen privacy policy, undergo regular audits, in FTC settlement

-- Jim Puzzanghera

Photo: Reuters

Google Inc., has agreed to implement a comprehensive privacy policy and undergo 20 years of independent audits as part of a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission in connection with charges that it used deceptive tactics and violated promises to customers when launching its Buzz social network last year.

The terms of the settlement, announced Wednesday, were among the toughest ever handed out by federal regulators in a privacy case. It was the first time the FTC has required a company to put in place a sweeping privacy policy to protect consumer data, the agency said.

"When companies make privacy pledges, they need to honor them," said FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz. "This is a tough settlement that ensures that Google will honor its commitments to consumers and build strong privacy protections into all of its operations."

Google will be required to give users "a clear and prominent notice and to obtain express affirmative consent prior to sharing the Google user's information with any third party in connection with a change, addition or enhancement to any product or service," according to the settlement. Google also will have to undergo a third-party review every two years for the next 20 years that certifies its privacy policy adheres to standards set in the settlement.

Google admitted Wednesday in a blog post that "we don't always get everything right," and apologized again "for the mistakes we made with Buzz."

"The launch of Google Buzz fell short of our usual standards for transparency and user control -- letting our users and Google down," Alma Whitten, the company's director of privacy, product and engineering, wrote in the post. "While we worked quickly to make improvements, regulators -- including the U.S. Federal Trade Commission -- unsurprisingly wanted more detail about what went wrong and how we could prevent it from happening again. Today, we've reached an agreement with the FTC to address their concerns."

Google launched the Buzz social network in early 2010 inside millions of accounts in its Gmail email service in hopes of developing a competitor to Facebook. But it quickly sparked an uproar as Gmail users worried that their contacts and other information would be exposed.

The FTC found that the options for opting out of Buzz were "ineffective" and that Google had "misrepresented" to consumers that they could opt out of the service. Gmail users who chose the "Nah, go to my inbox" option when they got a message about the new service "were nonetheless enrolled in certain features," the FTC said.

Google changed the service in response to thousands of customer complaints and apologized for the problems, but that didn't satisfy privacy advocates, who said the damage was already done. The Electronic Privacy Information Center filed a formal complaint with the FTC. The group called Wednesday's settlement "the most significant privacy decision by the commission to date."

"The FTC has sent a powerful message to Google and the online data collection giants: We are watching you as you watch consumers," said Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, another privacy advocacy group.  "The commission's requirement that an independent outside privacy auditor is needed for Google for the next 20 years demonstrates what consumer advocates have been saying -- that Google and other online marketing companies are not being candid about their digital ad practices."

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-- Jim Puzzanghera

Sprint Nextel Corp. formally announced its opposition to AT&T Inc.'s proposed $39-billion purchase of T-Mobile USA Inc., urging regulators to block the huge telecommunications deal.

If the deal goes through, Sprint, the nation's fourth-largest wireless carrier, would find itself a distant third, behind Verizon Wireless and a much larger AT&T.

Sprint had been a rumored suitor for T-Mobile. With the AT&T deal, however, analysts speculate that Sprint would be ripe for takeover or be forced to acquire smaller wireless providers to try to remain competitive.

But AT&T's purchase must be approved by federal regulators for it to go through. And Sprint said Monday that should not happen.

"Sprint urges the United States government to block this anti-competitive acquisition," said Vonya McCann, the company's senior vice president for government affairs. "This transaction will harm consumers and harm competition at a time when this country can least afford it."

Regulators are expected to give the deal tough scrutiny. And key lawmakers have promised hearings; some of them, along with consumer advocates, have raised concerns that the deal could raise prices for wireless subscribers and reduce competition.

Sprint argued that it can compete "in a truly dynamic marketplace" but that AT&T's purchase would reverse years of actions by the federal government and the courts to make the U.S. telecommunications market more competitive.

Raising the specter of a return to AT&T's one-time dominance of the traditional land-line phone business, McCann said, "Sprint will fight this attempt by AT&T to undo the progress of the past 25 years and create a new Ma Bell duopoly."

[Updated at 1:03 p.m.: AT&T responded that if it buys T-Mobile, the wireless market will remain competitive and the company will improve its quality of service and its customers' ability to get next-generation service, "spurring innovation and economic growth."

"The U.S. wireless market is intensely competitive, with five or more competitors in 18 of the top 20 markets," AT&T said.]

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 -- Jim Puzzanghera

 Photo: A Kyocera Corp. Echo smart phone that uses Sprint's service. Credit: Bloomberg

Former Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell has been named the new head of the leading cable TV trade association.

Powell will become president and chief executive officer of the National Cable and Telecommunications Assn., taking on the role of "the cable industry’s leading advocate, spokesman, and representative in its relationship with the U.S. Congress, the administration, the FCC, and other federal agencies," the group said Tuesday in a news release.

"Michael Powell is one of the most well respected and influential visionaries in all of telecommunications, and we’re so proud to have him join the cable team," said NCTA board Chairman Patrick J. Esser, the president of Cox Communications.

The NCTA represents dozens of companies, including leading cable and Internet providers such as Comcast Corp. and Time Warner Cable and top programming networks, including Discovery Communications Inc. and Disney Media Networks. The association's companies provide service to more than 90% of the nation's cable TV households.

Powell, the son of former Secretary of State Colin Powell, has been a senior advisor with Providence Equity Partners, a private equity firm focused on media and communications.

“Cable is a dynamic and highly innovative industry, providing cutting-edge services and content that Americans love,” Powell said.

He left the FCC in 2005 after more than seven years as a commissioner, including a controversial four-year tenure as chairman. Powell led an aggressive crackdown on over-the-air obscenities while at the same time pushing to scale back the government's role in the telecommunications industry. He championed a loosening of media ownership rules that was later struck down by the courts.

At the NCTA, Powell replaces Kyle McSlarrow, who left this month to head Comcast's Washington office.

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-- Jim Puzzanghera

 Photo: Michael Powell in 2003. Credit: Associated Press.

Facebook said Monday it was "actively considering" whether to allow third-party applications to request mobile phone numbers and addresses from users younger than 18.

The ability of applications to request that information from users of the social networking site has been the subject of controversy since Facebook first allowed it in January. Facebook disabled the feature a couple of days later after criticism from some users and privacy experts.

In a letter to lawmakers released Monday, Facebook said it was working to "re-enable" the feature but with changes. In addition to possibly disabling the feature for minors, Facebook said it was considering revising the permission screen that users see before they give their approval to an application to make it clearer what information they are sharing.

 "We have not yet decided when or in what manner we will redeploy the permission for mobile numbers and addresses," Marne Levine, Facebook's vice president for global public policy, wrote to Reps. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Joe Barton (R-Texas).

The two lawmakers are key congressional players on privacy issues and early last month jumped into the dispute about Facebook's new feature. They wrote to Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg asking 11 detailed questions and expressing concerns that it would violate the privacy of users.

On Monday, the congressmen released the seven-page response they received last week from Facebook. Levine stressed that Facebook users must give permission to applications seeking their personal information. Still, she wrote that user feedback about the new feature led Facebook officials to determine they "might be able to increase visibility" of the request for mobile phone and address information on the permission screen.

With children involved, Markey said it was crucial for Facebook to get the policy right. He urged the company not to allow applications to have access to contact information for teens.

Markey said he was pleased that Facebook was looking to make it clearer for users to see when an application wants permission to access their contact information.

"I'm also encouraged that Facebook is deciding whether to allow applications on the site to request contact information from minors. I don't believe that applications on Facebook should get this information from teens, and I encourage Facebook to wall off access to teens' contact information if they enable this new feature."

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-- Jim Puzzanghera

 Photo: Sign at Facebook headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif. Credit: Bloomberg.

  Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski on Monday unveiled a plan to overhaul a much-criticized program that helps provide phone service to far-flung rural areas, proposing to focus it on expanding high-speed Internet access to those same locations.

The $8-billion Universal Service Fund is paid for by telecommunications companies, who must contribute a percentage of their long-distance revenue, often passing those fees on to their customers. The decades-old program has successfully spread phone service to residents in hard-to-reach areas that often are unprofitable for companies to serve, Genachowski said in a speech to the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation.

But the fund has become highly inefficient, he said. In some cases, it pays more than $20,000 a year to provide a single home with phone service.

"The program is still designed to support traditional telephone service. It’s a 20th century program poorly suited for the challenges of a 21st century world," Genachowski said. "In its current state, the program is not getting the job done. It’s leaving millions on the outside looking in, and wasting taxpayer dollars every year."

Reforming the Universal Service Fund was a priority of the FCC's National Broadband Plan, which was released last year with a goal of ensuring that at least 100 million homes have access to affordable  networks delivering Internet services at speeds much faster than today by 2015.

Genachowski said in an interview that his main goal is to modernize and streamline the fund.

"We want to eliminate the waste and inefficiency from the program as it exists now and then use those savings to fund Internet service in unserved America," he said.

Genachowski's plan calls for major changes, particularly to the complex payments known as Intercarrier Compensation that telecommunications pay each other as they transmit calls over their networks. He wants to use the savings from that and other changes to help pay for a new Connect America Fund.

"At the end of this transition, we would no longer subsidize telephone networks; instead we would support broadband," Genachowski said in his speech. "As we do this, we will make sure that all Americans continue to have access to voice service and can make calls from their homes. Voice will be ultimately one application that consumers can use over their fixed or mobile broadband connections."

The FCC is set to take an initial vote on the plan Tuesday, starting the process of receiving public comments on the new rules.

Telecommunications companies have pressed for years for changes to the Universal Service Fund and Genachowski said he has received positive feedback from the industry to his ideas.

"There’s certainly difference of opinion about the best way to fix it. Those are questions we have to resolve," he said in the interview. "It’s understood the program itself is unsustainable."

Verizon said it supported Genachowski's call for changing the fund and said he presented " a good road map."

But Genachowski is wading into controversial territory. Some rural lawmakers want the Universal Service Fund expanded to extend high-speed Internet access, while others have called for the fund to be eliminated because they said it is no longer necessary.

Genachowski said he's trying to chart a middle course and rejected calls for killing the fund.

"While the world has changed, the importance of universal service has not," he said in his speech. "We simply shouldn’t let millions of Americans be bypassed by the broadband revolution."

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-- Jim Puzzanghera

 Photo: FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski. Credit: Los Angeles Times

Reps. Joe Barton (R-Texas) and Edward Markey (D-Mass.), major congressional players on privacy issues, wrote to Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday expressing concerns about the social networking site's plans to share user addresses and phone numbers with developers and websites.

"Facebook needs to protect the personal information of its users to ensure that Facebook doesn’t become Phonebook," said Markey, who co-chairs the Congressional Privacy Caucus along with Barton and two senators. "This is sensitive data and needs to be protected."

The letter highlights the increased scrutiny Facebook is getting on Capitol Hill as lawmakers consider whether to update online privacy laws. Markey said he plans to introduce legislation that will include a requirement for a do-not-track mechanism so the online behavior and personal information of children won't be tracked.

Barton and Markey wrote to Zuckerberg last fall with detailed questions about reported privacy breaches. They received a 13-page response from Marne Levine, the company's Washington-based vice president for global public policy, saying their main concern, the sharing of Facebook user IDs, was not a breach of privacy.

In their latest letter, Barton and Markey asked Zuckerberg 11 questions about a plan quietly unveiled last month by Facebook -- then quickly put on hold a couple of days later -- to let third-party developers of applications and websites to request a user's address and mobile phone number. In delaying the launch, Facebook said it hoped to improve the feature and make it available in a few weeks.

Barton and Markey said they were worried about the privacy implications of the feature and the decisions involved in pulling it back after negative feedback from some users and security experts. Among their detailed questions:

If Facebook re-enables this feature, will users who initially opt in to sharing their home addresses and mobile phone numbers be able to have this information subsequently deleted by any third party application developer or website that holds it in the event the user no longer wishes to make this information available?

 Barton said he hoped Facebook would be a leader in privacy protection as it has been in innovation.

"The computer -- especially with sites like Facebook -- is now a virtual front door to your house allowing people access to your personal information," he said. "You deserve to look through the peep hole and decide who you are letting in.”

[Updated at 10:50 a.m.: Facebook said it allows users to share information only "after they explicitly authorize individual applications to access it." The company designs its user permission system in collaboration with privacy experts, but "following the rollout of this new feature, we heard some feedback and agree that there may be additional improvements we could make," Facebook said in a statement. "Great people at the company are working on that and we look forward to sharing their progress soon."]

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-- Jim Puzzanghera

Photo: Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.). Credit: Getty Images.

Verizon Communications went to federal court Thursday to try to stop the Federal Communications Commission's new rules to guarantee open Internet access.

In a widely expected move, the telecommunications giant told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia that the FCC exceeded its authority when it enacted regulations last month to forbid owners of high-speed lines and airwaves from favoring their services over those of competitors.

"We are deeply concerned by the FCC’s assertion of broad authority for sweeping new regulation of broadband networks and the Internet itself," said Michael E. Glover, Verizon's deputy general counsel. "We believe this assertion of authority goes well beyond any authority provided by Congress, and creates uncertainty for the communications industry, innovators, investors and consumers.”

The FCC voted 3 to 2 along party lines last month to enact the regulations to ensure so-called net neutrality, a top priority of President Obama and FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski. The rules prohibit phone and cable companies that provide high-speed Internet service from blocking their customers' access to any legal content, applications or services.

The rules are tougher on wired service than on the still-developing market for wireless Internet service. And after years of debate, the regulations did not go as far as some Democrats and many digital rights advocates had wanted. That led to qualified support from some telecommunications companies, such as AT&T Inc.

But many congressional Republicans were outraged by the FCC's move and have pledged to try to stop it. Verizon, which said it is committed to an open Internet, has been outspoken in arguing the new regulations are not needed.

Genachowski's office did not immediately comment on the Verizon appeal.

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-- Jim Puzzanghera

Photo: Consumer Electronics Association president and Chief Executive Officer Gary Shapiro, left, greets Verizon Communications Inc., chairman and Chief Executive Officer Ivan Seidenberg, right, and president and Chief Operating Officer Lowell McAdam during the Consumer Electronics Show, in Las Vegas on Jan. 6, 2011. Credit: Julie Jacobson/AP Photo