Stossel: Google and Facebook Cross 'The Creepy Line'

Companies like Google and Facebook collect information about us and sell it to advertisers.

The information they collect and the way they collect it cross the "creepy line" according to a new documentary called "The Creepy Line."

John Stossel asks the writer of the documentary, Peter Schweizer: "What's the big deal? They're giving me information."

Schweizer responds "to the extent that somebody can do something for you, they can do something to you." He goes on to make a powerful case that Google and Facebook abuse their power.

The documentary says that Google tracks you even when you are not online. As soon as you connect to the internet, Android uploads to Google a complete history of where you've been that day.

Schweizer wants Google and Facebook to be regulated like media companies.

Stossel is skeptical "You want regulation? That's going to make it better?" he asks.

Schweizer answers: "one of the ways you deal with Google's market concentration, and its massive control of search is, put it under the same shackles [as] other media companies."

Stossel doesn't presume to know what, if anything, ought to be done about Google and Facebook. But he says that the documentary makes a compelling case that these giant companies do creepy things.

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The views expressed in this video are solely those of John Stossel; his independent production company, Stossel Productions; and the people he interviews. The claims and opinions set forth in the video and accompanying text are not necessarily those of Reason.