The latest in the Google privacy raid epic is a story in the news about them collecting data from your wireless internet connection while they were driving up and down your street taking pictures of your house.

No, seriously.. I know that sounds funny but that is what they were doing this time.

Think about that for a second… If anyone else was driving down your street taking pictures of your place and intercepting your wi-fi you would probably either have them arrested or in some cases, start shooting.

Again Google replied to this using their usual excuse; it was a mistake, blamed it on one rogue engineer, the code was part of another application and should not have been part of the street view application, OH and they even went as far as saying they did not know they were doing it!!!

Are you kidding me? You know where everything is on the internet but you do not know what is on your own hard drive???

What I find COMPLETELY astonishing is Google did this all over the world and now they are facing criminal charges in other countries and 30 US states have jumped on the litigation band wagon.

What is next? They have captured my credit card details in AdWords, they gave out my contacts list to everyone I associate with, they have taken pictures of my house, and they intercepted my wi-fi data? Ahhh but wait, there is more. They have access to ALL my emails, they know everything I am searching for on the internet, who I call on my mobile phone, and what apps I like best on my Droid.

Are any of you getting the big picture here? Do you feel like you are under a microscope?

You should.

Google probably knows more about you than your mother does and most of the information they have collected on you was done while violating your right to privacy.

Do you care?

EPIC, also known as the Electronic Privacy Information Center has lodged a formal complaint with the FTC over the launch of BUZZ when they automatically enrolled 176 million users without their consent.

EPIC states BUZZ and Google is being “deceptive” and this violates consumer protection laws. “Twitter is a social networking site and people know what they are signing up for. With Gmail, users signed up for an e-mail service not a social networking service,” said Ms. Nguyen in an interview with the BBC

The complaint has asked the FTC to force Google to provide Gmail users with opt-in consent to the Google Buzz service  as well as provide notice and require consent from Gmail users before making changes to their privacy policy in the future.

I know it must seem like I am on an anti-Google tirade as of late but not only did Google automatically sign you up for BUZZ, they also created your circle of friends based on who you have emailed.

I am sorry Google, but don’t you think that should be my choice? Seems Google wanted to have an instant “Facebook” style platform to serve it’s ads and because you have a Gmail account, they signed you up for BUZZ without your permission.

Picture this, your automatic circle of friends just included all of your business contacts and your competitors because you have exchanged email with them in the past. Perhaps you are in talks with a new employer and your boss and the HR dept. of the new company are among your friends for all to see??

Are you being faithful in your relationship??

So what did Google have to say?

Google has apologized and said it has acted quickly to address concerns and introduced a new option to disable the service.

“If it becomes clear that people don’t think we’ve done enough, we’ll make more changes,” Todd Jackson, product manager for Google Buzz told BBC News.

He also stated that “tens of millions” of users were “rightfully upset” and that the firm was “very, very sorry”.

What I want to know is: If  Google agrees that I am “rightfully upset” why did they violate my privacy in the first place?

In an interview with BBC News, Mr Jackson admitted that testing of the service had been inadequate and that it was not opened up to a big enough group of people to try out.

“We’ve been testing Buzz internally at Google for a while. Of course, getting feedback from 20,000 Googlers isn’t quite the same as letting Gmail users play with Buzz in the wild.”

This example of blatant disregard of privacy totally debunks Google’s stance or the protection of, and right to privacy they expressed with China over the hacking of a few Gmail accounts said to be owned by human rights activists. There obviously is no need for any hacking, Google is more than willing to hand your list of contacts over to anyone and do what it sees fit with your personal information.

As an owner of a marketing company, if I sign you up for a Gmail account (which is required for an Adwords account) and your privacy rights are violated, I could be held liable!

“This case illustrates a lot about Google’s corporate culture where a company is run by computer scientists whose operating method is don’t ask for permission when you can always ask for forgiveness,” said John Simpson from EPIC. This statement could not be any closer to the truth.

If you have read my last article, you will see this exact mentality represented in the administration of Adwords accounts. It is becoming more and more obvious Google is taking it upon themselves to dictate who can be found in search results and what features your are being subscribed to. Top that off with the inability to cancel an Adwords account or remove your financial information from it… I think you can see why we our opinion of Google has soured.

Unfortunately dealing with them and doing what is required to get good organic rankings has become a necessary evil.

My company firmly believes in the sacred right to privacy of all our clients and we will not jeopardize that without your written consent when providing you with services offered by Google as they are clearly demonstrating time and time again violations of the rights you have to protect you private information.