Can we stop quoting EPIC? I mean completely – just stop publishing anything the “Electronic Privacy Information Center” says, even when it’s a lawsuit against a well known tech giant? I know that the only time I ever bring them up in a post is to talk about how wrong they are.  I’ve never, ever supported a position they’ve held, which puts them in a similar category as Greenpeace and PETA, organizations that hold positions that sound good in theory, but in practice only ever say outrageous and untenable things.

The latest bit of news is their strong disapproval (!!) of Google’s “bungled launch of Buzz,” as John Paczkowski at All Things Digital put it.

“EPIC urges the Commission to investigate Google, determine the extent of the harm to consumer privacy and safety,” EPIC said in its complaint. “[And it asks that the Commission] require Google to provide Gmail users with opt-in consent to the Google Buzz service, require Google to give Gmail users meaningful control over personal information, require Google to provide notice to and request consent from Gmail users before making material changes to their privacy policy in the future, and seek appropriate injunctive and compensatory relief.”

EPIC and it’s buddy organization, the inapropriately named Center for Digital Democracy, have been responsible for some of my most infuriating post topics over the years:

AskEraser Under Fire from Privacy Groups
“…the series of events leading up to Ask debuting this tool was the big stink raised by the The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), the Center for Digital Democracy (CDD) and other privacy watchdogs over the Google-Doubleclick merger and the call for the creation of the do-not-track list, where they suggested that there be a requirement that advertisers, as a part of their online ads, give those that they advertise to the details of what they intend to track about them.

Now, after a series of one-up-manship battles took place between digital advertisers and search engines on how privacy friendly they could possibly be, Ask won out by the ratings of these same privacy groups with the creation of AskEraser.

Never content with anything, seemingly, EPIC appears to be complaining to the FTC that Ask.com is engaging in unfair and deceptive trade practices with the representations concerning AskEraser by noting that a cookie must be accepted by the user from Ask that remembers, essentially, that the user doesn’t want any other cookies that store info on the user (EPIC’s complaint and correspondence).

During the Google-Doubleclick merger:

CDD and EPIC are both calling for Majoras to recuse herself, and rebuking her for not disclosing this information from “Day One.”

The end result? The FTC decision on the acquisition by Google of DoubleClick will not come next week, as had been previously scheduled.

The obvious problem with EPIC filing a lawsuit and other types of complaints on these types of things is it diminishes the instances of actual privacy breaches which need real attention. 

Let me give you another example. My buddy Sean P. Aune posted a while back about PETA’s campaign and complaints against Ben and Jerry’s Icecream to replace their cow’s milk with human breast milk:

According to a story on NBC 5 WPTZ’s website, PETA sent a letter to the founders of Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream after they heard of a restaurant in Switzerland that was switching to human breast milk in all of their recipes.  A Ben & Jerry’s spokesperson said, “We applaud PETA’s novel approach to bringing attention to an issue, but we believe a mother’s milk is best used for her child.”

I don’t know a single privacy expert that gives any stock to what the CDD and EPIC has to say, and as a privacy expert who’s held many panel discussions and lectures on the topic, that’s saying something. The CDD and EPIC’s ignorance of actual egregious and mundane privacy violations that occur every day in the tech world, all the while focusing on sensationalistic and convoluted claims like these only further serves to diminish their credibility.

We, as media (both new and heritage) need to stop covering them and their antics.