Times Square video pokes Google on privacy

The video depicts Schmidt in an ice cream truck telling children, “If there is anything you don’t want anyone to know, well you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.” Schmidt recently said all young people might need to change their names when they get older to avoid traces of their past accumulated on various social networking sites.

“We like ice cream as much as anyone, but we like privacy even more. That’s why we provide tools for users to control their privacy online, like Google Dashboard, Ads Preferences Manager, Chrome incognito mode and ‘off the record’ Gmail chat,” said Google when asked for a response, directing users to its privacy homepage.

The video ends by asking viewers to call Congress and demand the creation of a list similar to the Federal Trade Commission’s “Do Not Call” registry, which is supported by other consumer advocacy groups. The FTC has said any such list would have to be mandated by Congress.

See the video here: