36 state AGs blast Google, not banks

The report that 36 state attorneys general have signed a letter blasting Google's privacy policy rings out across the land:

36 state AGs blast Google's privacy policy change - Computerworld: "Computerworld - Attorneys General from 36 states are concerned over the potential implications of Google's new privacy policy, especially for government users and owners of Android-powered smartphones.

In a sharply-worded letter (a target="new" href="http://epic.org/privacy/google/20120222-Google-Privacy-Policy-Final.pdf">download PDF) to Google CEO Larry Page, the officials questioned Google's commitment to consumer privacy and said the changes would force Internet users to share their data without giving them a proper ability to opt out.

The letter is the latest, and perhaps most dramatic, expression of concern."

Too bad they didn't show similar courage when it came to the so-called "mortgage settlement" that let banks off the hook for their deplorable, dishonorable practices that cost millions of people billions of dollars with only a slap on the wrist.

Then again, the banks rule this country (most of Europe, too!), so it's only natural that they get a pass while everyone else just has to suck it up. How many times have the taxpayers bailed out the banks already, anyway? And yet the debt is coming around to bite us all in the ass, just like it's bitten the Greeks in the ass, before it's over with -- and we'll all have a taste of "austerity" while bankers reap record profits.

Whatever your gripe about Google's privacy practices, they can never equal the abuses of the system undertaken and underwritten by the banks and the oligarchical interests they represent. If you don't want to use Google's services, you can avoid them, but you cannot avoid the death-grip that bankers have over your country and your family.

The state AGs are simply grandstanding here. Too weak and compromised to take a stand when it mattered most, they compensate with trivialities like who keeps tabs on which websites you look at.