No Google In Washington Over Children's Online Privacy Questioning

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No Google In Washington Over Children's Online Privacy Questioning [washingtonpost.com]

When someone as influential as Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV requests your presence at a hearing, Washington insiders know it's more of a summons than an invitation.

So for two hours on the morning of April 29, Microsoft, Facebook, the Federal Trade Commission, and experts from academia, think tanks and privacy groups dutifully came to answer questions about children's online privacy.

But another invitee, Google, the biggest online company of all, was a no-show.

Google declined to comment on Rockefeller's hearing last month. Whether its no-show was an honest oversight, an effort to avoid public questioning at a sensitive time or a deliberate slight, the senator was not pleased.

Shouldn't major companies, such as Google, show up to these things when invited?

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Shouldn't major companies, such as Google, show up to these things when invited?

Not always. Companies are businesses. Businesses do what they do to make money. You want to keep good relations with those who make the laws, but at some point the time, money and effort simply doesn't make economic sense.

Google is not the internet. Someone got a specific gripe about what Google is doing vis a vis children's online privacy or whatever, they should ask it.

Is the web safe for children? No, it is not. Who is responsible? Parents. Should companies do what they say the are going to do? Yes. Are they? Yes. Is it perfect? No. Are laws needed to make the companies more perfect? No.