Politico: "Can Google be trusted?"

A recent Politico story is asking the familiar question, “Can Google be trusted?”

David Saleh Rauf’s story notes Google’s recent pattern of broken promises and questionable track record has “regulators around the globe wondering: ‘Can Google be trusted?'”

According to David Vladeck, the FTC’s director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection, “Google’s defense that ‘we didn’t know;’ … that raises red flags for regulators […] As a regulator, it’s hard to know which answer is worse — ‘we didn’t know’ or ‘we did it deliberately.’ Both are bad.”

More voices are chiming in, questioning Google’s actions and asking if the search giant can really be trusted.

“The accretion of these issues and enforcement actions simply undermines trust and credibility, which goes to the core of their business model.” – Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn)

“[T]his is not the first time the Commission has charged Google with engaging in deceptive conduct… This is Google’s second bite at the apple.” – FTC Commissioner Thomas Rosch

“Bit by bit Google’s credibility is dissipating…They are certainly going down a slippery slope.” – Robert Lande, a professor of antitrust law at the University of Baltimore School of Law

Politico’s Rauf points out, “That’s a problem for a company with a $200 billion market capitalization that has carefully tried to craft its image as a good guy — hence the motto “Don’t be evil.”

As the US FTC continues its investigation and the European Commission enters technical discussions with Google, “trust is going to be more important than ever.”