It appears that President Obama’s favorite company has been caught with its hands in the cookie jar. The question is – is anyone going to do something about it?
Of course, the company is Google and the relationship between the president and Google’s corporate executives is paying hefty returns on both ends. Google plied the president with nearly a million dollars in political contributions during his run for the presidency and now the company is rewarded with government contracts and policy initiatives like Net Neutrality that will pad the company’s bottom line.
In turn, the president’s men have turned a blind eye to privacy concerns, anti-trust concerns and now, perhaps, perjury concerns.
News from Washington suggests that Google has been caught lying on federal contracting application. Politico is reporting that an a critical application for another government contract, Google made the claim that it met all necessary federal security requirements by claiming it had obtained government certification under the Federal Information Security Management Act. It had not. In fact, in a legal filing, the Department of Justice wrote (N)otwithstanding Google’s representations to the public at large, its counsel, the GAO, and this Court,” wrote DOJ, which is defending Interior against Google’s suit, “it appears that Google’s Google Apps for Government does not have FISMA certification.” Whoops.
A greater issue has arisen – a question asked by Citizens Against Government Waste President Tom Schatz: “The government spends tens of billions of dollars every year on IT. Taxpayers deserve to know that when government agencies are adopting new technologies such as the cloud, the procurement process is fair and unbiased, the best technology is being procured at the least possible cost, and the vendor is both accountable and trustworthy.”
Are the procurement procedures by the government fair or are they tilted in Google’s favor? Are the millions in government contracts awarded to the company by NASA and other agencies just part of the favor factory that is Washington? Taxpayers deserve answers.
Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) is the first conservative willing to raise concerns about the growing influence of the corporation upon our government. For that he deserves kudos. It’s time for Congress to begin answering questions about the relationship between Google and the President and hopefully they will get some before former Google CEO becomes Secretary of Commerce.
All right you Googlites out there. The FIRST step to start undoing Google is this.
STOP using their search engine. I mean all your searches and ISP address are recorded
and saved by them for them and the NSA, fully documented. Haven’t used their search
engine in years. Use http://www.ixquick.com. Defund them by not clicking on the ads. Stop being lazy, learn how
to “Search the Net” in a new manner.
Use . It was developed in good old NYC before
moving to the Netherlands. It’s safe, secure, no recording of your searches and ISP address.
Plus, you can use their advanced settings to make yourself almost ghost like on the Internet.
Don’t get me started on FaceBook, even more dangerous than Google.
Actually, there is nothing stopping the Republican House from investigating this corrupt relationship.
Think they’ll do it?
Nah. Nothing to see here, keep moving around.
@Roman Cantrell: Seems like so many of my fav search engines either go out of business or get enveloped by other companies.
So, I’m giving your SE a try.
It is now my default search.
Thanks.
(I hope it outlasts ”ask jeeves.” LOL.)
@Roman Cantrell: Thanks Roman,
I just accessed ixquick and I’ll be trying it. I have been getting more and more uneasy with google lately and their bloated presence in the world.
I am not any sort of conspirator but I dislike anyone having too much info about me.
Bob Dylan
“If my thought dreams could be seen.
They’d probably put my head in a guillotine.”
This story appears to be not quite what it seems. Google’s response:
“We received FISMA authorization for Google Apps from the General Services Administration (GSA) in July 2010. Google Apps for Government is the same technology platform as Google Apps Premier Edition, not a separate system. It includes two added security enhancements exclusively for government customers: data location and segregation of government data. In consulting with GSA last year, it was determined that the name change and enhancements could be incorporated into our existing FISMA certification. In other words, Google Apps for Government would not require a separate application.”
They also claim that it is Microsoft’s competing product that is not FISMA certified.
There is a discussion on Groklaw here: http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20110413220154117
I knew they were in his pocket,the video guilty dog, well there is one called guilty cat,when I was watching it a message popped up it said VOTE OBAMA !!!!! It was an add FROM GOOGLE !!! How many of our young people see that ???
There are three search engines that guarantee they don’t save your search history:
http://www.ixquick.com/
http://proxify.com/
http://www.yippy.com/
I quit using Google a long time ago. They are being sued by several countries for receiving personal information over unsecured WiFi sights. Things like passwords and personal information. They said it was a programming error. The Feds WERE investigating them until one of the Google execs held a $30,000 a plate fundraiser for the democrats. About 1 1/2 weeks later the investigation was dropped. As long as the democrats control the congress things like this will continue to happen.
If the republicans eventually control the house I am guessing the fundraisers will be switched to the republicans and it will be politics as usual.
interesting to know, thank you