Consumer Watchdog's New Animated Video Satirizes Google Executives and Challenges Google's Information Monopoly on Eve of Schmidt's Senate Testimony

WASHINGTON, Sept. 19, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Consumer Watchdog's latest online animated video debuted today, satirizing Google CEO Larry Page and Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt to dramatize Google's information monopoly and make the case for Do Not Track Legislation.

The video, "Supercharge," exposes actual quotes by the executives and shows the two Google executives stalking a United States Senator through the signal in his Android mobile phone.

This is the third avatar-style animation aimed at Google's intrusive online practices released by the nonprofit, nonpartisan public interest group. The two earlier videos lampooned then Google CEO Eric Schmidt and were part of a campaign for more than a year to get Congress to require Schmidt to testify. Schmidt will finally testify Wednesday at a U.S. Senate Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee hearing titled, " The Power of Google: Serving Consumers or Threatening Competition."

Watch the video "Supercharge" at www.consumerwatchdog.org/stalkingthesenator

"If someone followed us around all day and took notes, they would be arrested for stalking," said John M. Simpson, director of Consumer Watchdog's Privacy Project. "Google tracks us all day and night online and through our mobile phones, doesn't take no for an answer, and gets wildly rich off its notes about us. The Senate's investigation into Google's information monopoly should explore not only the anticompetitive threat to business but the privacy threat to us all."

The first video, "Don't Be Evil?," which premiered with a digital ad in Times Square garnered nearly 500,000 views. It featured Schmidt in an ice cream truck offering "free" ice cream to children while gathering information about them, seizing on Schmidt's remarks about children needing to change their names later in life to protect their privacy. The video challenged Google offering "free" services so it can gather users' information and then target them with behavioral advertising.

View "Don't Be Evil?" here: http://youtu.be/Ouof1OzhL8k

The second video, "Mr. Schmidt Goes To Washington," made the case that the then CEO needed to testify before Congress about Google's Wi-Spy scandal, in which its Street View cars gathered data from private Wi-Fi networks in 30 countries around the world.

Both videos featured Schmidt wearing iconic "Wi-Spy" glasses to dramatize the incident and focus on Google's gathering our information. The latest video features both Page and Schmidt wearing the glasses.

View "Mr. Schmidt Goes To Washington" here:

http://www.youtube.com/consumerwatchdog#p/search/0/IBMPphy9gFg

"Google has amassed a tremendous database about our online activities – our search queries and what websites we visit -- and uses this information to further its monopolistic power over the Internet," said John M. Simpson, director of Consumer Watchdog's Privacy Project. "We are Google's product when our information is served up to advertisers so Google can reap monopoly profits. This week the Senate will grapple with what it means for one company to have so much power that it can collect virtually unlimited information about our lives. Google's information monopoly is not just a threat to businesses that don't do business with Google but to everyone online and with an Android phone."

Learn more about Consumer Watchdog's campaigns at www.consumerwatchdog.org and www.insidegoogle.com

Consumer Watchdog, is a nonprofit, nonpartisan consumer advocacy organization with offices in Washington, DC and Santa Monica, Ca. Consumer Watchdog's website is http://www.ConsumerWatchdog.org.

SOURCE Consumer Watchdog