Google shows how online privacy really works

Poor old Google - first the bad Buzz, now the EC is after them for search gerrymandering. But the story we like most is a classic of privacy hypocrisy - as we have noted before, the leaders of the various social networks try every stratagem they can imagine to get you to give up your privacy, but have totally the opposite view of privacy for themselves.

So it is with some delight we record that Eric Schmidt, Google CEO, recently (in)famous for saying

"If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place."

....is desperately trying to ensure we don't know something he did in the first place, and is pursuing his ex-mistress and her pesky website via the heavy mob - Gawker:

Now the site has been removed from Google's Blogspot, where it was hosted.

Bohner removed the site after threats from Schmidt's lawyers this weekend, according to a source close to the situation.

"When a billionaire threatens you, you get in line," this person said.

It made for a frightening weekend for Bohner, and no wonder: Not only is the former CNBC and Forbes journalist trying to come to terms with her sobriety and past addiction, she doesn't appear to be swimming in the money it would take to mount a plausible legal challenge to a powerful and well-connected tech executive worth $4 billion.

So what's the lesson here, apart from the well known issue of the law too often being on the side of the deep pockets?

Simple, for all you social media-ites - when it comes to matters of giving up online privacy, going for open-ness and transparency and all the Kool-Aid 2.0 - don't lap up what the big dogs say, watch what they do instead.

And just in case you thought that you can always find the dirt by searching on Google, turns out part of the reason the EC is after Google is that others are alleging that Google buries websites it doesn't want you to see.