public policy

Voices

Web Tool On Firefox To Deter Tracking

Julia Angwin, Senior Technology Editor, The Wall Street Journal in News on January 24, 2011 at 5:00 am PT

Mozilla Corp. plans to add a do-not-track feature to its Firefox Web browser, which could let users avoid having their actions monitored online. The announcement makes Firefox the first Web browser to heed the Federal Trade Commission’s call for the development of a do-not-track system. The Wall Street Journal reported in December that Mozilla was exploring the development of such a system.

Voices

AT&T Joins Comcast on Level 3's Enemies List

Shayndi Raice, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal in News on December 10, 2010 at 10:52 am PT

Level 3 Communications is going after AT&T Inc. after the telecom giant accused the Internet service provider of political spin in its dispute with Comcast.

Decoding Google's Net Neutrality Proposal Blog: The Pixie Dust-Free Edition!

Kara Swisher in News on August 13, 2010 at 5:51 am PT

The opening line of the classic J.M. Barrie book “Peter Pan” reads: “All children, except one, grow up.” Actually, that one too, and now the whole Internet is angry at Google and taking shots, because of its recent joint public policy proposal with Verizon over net neutrality. They are claiming the Silicon Valley search giant–in the most cynical of ways–sold out its long-standing commitment to the open Internet to make a corporately-favorable deal. Thus, Google took to the corporate blog yesterday to explain it all away in a post titled, “Facts About Our Network Neutrality Policy.” It practically begs for translation, so BoomTown shall not disappoint!

Voices

Google Opens Up on What Its 'Street View' Cars Collect

Jennifer Valentino-DeVries, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal in News on April 28, 2010 at 12:01 pm PT

By now, Google’s cars have driven down roads around the world — and in some places, they’re sparking concerns about just what information they are collecting. So the Internet-search giant is opening up a bit about the data it compiles. Google is trying to address criticisms that have been leveled against it in European countries in particular and provided details about Street View cars in a post on its European Public Policy Blog on Tuesday.

Facebook Lands Former Bebo CEO (And ex-Googler) Joanna Shields

Peter Kafka in Media on April 1, 2010 at 2:06 am PT

Facebook is beefing up its European sales team with a big name in social networking circles: It is adding former Bebo CEO Joanna Shields, who will runs sales and business development in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

BoomTown Decodes Google's Phish-y Associated Press Blog (So You Don't Have To)!

Kara Swisher in News on April 8, 2009 at 10:01 am PT

Yesterday, in response to Associated Press board Chairman and MediaNews Group CEO Dean Singleton’s diatribe against those who shoplift news and his pledge to “protect news content from misappropriation,” Google posted a response on its public policy blog. Of course, that has nothing to do with the fact that most people think the Singleton speech was aimed at the search giant and its burgeoning power over the distribution of media, although Google was not named by him. Still, it’s always nice to make nice. Sort of. So, it was hard to resist translating this Google blog by one of its lawyers.