'Petulant' Conroy accuses Google of 'single greatest privacy breach'

'Petulant' Conroy accuses Google of 'single greatest privacy breach'

www.smh.com.au

The Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy, has accused Google of launching "the single greatest breach in the history of privacy".

The spray, during a Senate estimates hearing, is just the latest in a series of attacks by Senator Conroy on the search giant following Google's criticism of the government's forthcoming internet censorship regime.

(visit the link for the full news article)

And so, on & on & on it goes.....

The appalling Rudd government's triumph of 21st communications culture..... CONroy..... sprays Google whilst hiding behind parliamentary privilege.

I think the strain is starting to show.

Fortunately, this mob seems to be falling apart.

Kind regards
Maybe...maybe not


www.smh.com.au
(visit the link for the full news article)

Here’s the article in full:

'Petulant' Conroy accuses Google of 'single greatest privacy breach'

Asher Moses
May 25, 2010 - 11:23AM

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"On a hair trigger" ... Communications Minister Stephen Conroy. Photo: Andrew Meares


The Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy, has accused Google of launching "the single greatest breach in the history of privacy".

The spray, during a Senate estimates hearing, is just the latest in a series of attacks by Senator Conroy on the search giant following Google's criticism of the government's forthcoming internet censorship regime.

The minister's critics have rounded on him this morning, calling last night's comments just another "petulant" and "hysterical" attempt to bad mouth people and companies critical of his policies.

Senator Conroy's comments refer to the recent privacy furore sparked by revelations that Google accidentally gathered 600GB worth of private data from open Wi-Fi networks while taking pictures for its Street View mapping service around the world.
The move has landed it in hot water from several privacy regulators, who have accused the company of unlawful interception of users' data, including audio, video, documents and emails. It could then potentially link these intercepted documents to a specific address.

Google has argued that the data was collected by mistake but Senator Conroy rejected this, saying it was "actually quite deliberate" and Google "wrote a piece of code designed to do it".

"I think that the approach taken by [Google CEO Eric] Schmidt is a bit creepy, frankly," Senator Conroy was quoted by ABC News Online as saying.

"They [Google] consider that they are the appropriate people to make the decisions about people's privacy data and that they are perfectly entitled to drive the streets and collect as much private information by photographing over fences and collecting data information.

"This is probably the single greatest breach in the history of privacy."
The full hansard transcript of Senator Conroy's spray will not be published until late today or tomorrow.
In a phone interview this morning, Greens communications spokesman Scott Ludlam confirmed that Senator Conroy labelled the Google Wi-Fi debacle the single greatest breach in the history of privacy.

This seems to be at odds with the thoughts of the Australian Privacy Commissioner, Karen Curtis, who has launched an investigation into the matter but has previously played down the seriousness of the privacy threat.

Today, Curtis, who met Google last week, said she was still investigating the company's collection of Wi-Fi payload data and was awaiting a response from Google to further questions. She refused to provide any further comment.

"The minister's on a bit of a hair trigger so anyone who's criticised the net filters becomes a target for character assasination, whether it be an advocacy group like EFA [Electronic Frontiers Australia] or one of the world's largest technology companies like Google," Senator Ludlam said.

"It comes across as really petulant - the guy's a minister of the Crown, you don't need to be bawling out technology companies just because they've taken a critical stand on his filter."

"I just think the minister's being a little bit oversensitive to criticism - it would be helpful sometimes if rather than shooting the messenger he listens to what he's being told."

Senator Ludlam and Colin Jacobs, chair of Electronic Frontiers Australia, both agreed that the Google Wi-Fi bungle was a serious matter but said Senator Conroy appeared to be beating it up for political gain.

"The Minister's hyberbole, bordering on hysterical, is counter-productive," said Jacobs.

"We need a measured assessment of the risks and issues, not a personal vendetta against a company that has publicly disagreed with the Minister on his censorship policies."

In the same estimates hearing, Senator Conroy also sounded off against Facebook over its recent privacy failings, accusing it of having a "complete disregard for users' privacy lately".

Google issued a terse response to Senator Conroy's spray, saying: "We were surprised to hear more discussion about Google and Facebook than about the actual proposed filter."

Kind regards
Maybe...maybe not

reply to post by Maybe...maybe not


You're right.

They're cracking up!

Originally posted by Beatrix Kiddo Jr
reply to post by Maybe...maybe not

 

You're right.

They're cracking up!

Beatrix Kiddo Jr.....

I agree.....

They're "cracking up" on a number of fronts!!

However, this censorship issue is very important.....& don't be mistaken.....this is what CONroy's on about.....

.....softening them up for the next round of "negotiations", whilst cowardly hiding behind parliamentary privilege.

Kind regards
Maybe...maybe not

Originally posted by Maybe...maybe not

Google has argued that the data was collected by mistake but Senator Conroy rejected this, saying it was "actually quite deliberate" and Google "wrote a piece of code designed to do it".

Now I see the problem ...
Google, having "wrote a piece of code designed to do it", refused to give CONroy the code so he could snoop too.

"I think that the approach taken by [Google CEO Eric] Schmidt is a bit creepy, frankly," Senator Conroy was quoted by ABC News Online as saying.

Take it from CONroy. He knows all about CREEPY.

"They [Google] consider that they are the appropriate people to make the decisions about people's privacy data and that they are perfectly entitled to drive the streets and collect as much private information by photographing over fences and collecting data information.

- when we all know CONroy is the appropriate person to make decisions about people's private data.

"I just think the minister's being a little bit oversensitive to criticism - it would be helpful sometimes if rather than shooting the messenger he listens to what he's being told."

It would be even more helpful if the messenger started shooting.

"The Minister's hyberbole, bordering on hysterical, is counter-productive," said Jacobs.

Nah, it's great.
Creepy CONroy, shooting his mouth off, show us all he's mentally unstable and should be removed from office.

And his baby, (the nation-wide censorship scheme,) should be shredded, burnt and buried.

reply to post by Kailassa


Kailassa.....

Well said!

I heard a guy on the radio today saying how the same guy (CONroy) who is so concerned about our privacy in this "Google instance" is the same guy who wants to invade our privacy so massively himself!

He put it so well.....I should have transcribed it!

Kind regards
Maybe...maybe not

Conroy is one hand shandy away from a complete kleenex box.
But both sides of the floor at the present are paint-chip eating,window licking wastes of a public paycheck.

Shame,shame on us.

Originally posted by Cygnus_Hunter
Conroy is one hand shandy away from a complete kleenex box.
But both sides of the floor at the present are paint-chip eating,window licking wastes of a public paycheck.

Shame,shame on us.

Vince for PM!!

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