EU Concerned about Google’s Takeover of DoubleClick Inc.
Europe’s major consumer group BEUC said Wednesday that it feared Internet search engine Google Inc.’s takeover of online ad tracker DoubleClick Inc. would damage European Union privacy rights and limit consumers’ choice of Web content.
Their plea to EU regulators comes after U.S. consumer privacy advocacy groups asked the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to look at how the two companies, when combined, would have access to an unprecedented amount of data on consumers’ Web usage and Internet search habits.
Cornelia Kutterer, BEUC’s senior legal adviser, said the association had asked the European Commission and other European authorities to look into privacy concerns — even though the two companies have not yet requested EU approval for the US$3.1 billion (euro2.29 billion) deal.
‘’They have so far complementary databases with private data. If they merge them, this could lead to unmatched databases of profiles,'’ Kutterer told the AP. ‘’If they can combine them, this could lead to a violation of user privacy rights.'’
In a letter to data privacy and consumer rights regulators, BEUC said the new company would have and could exploit enormous amounts of personal information about users as they click on Web pages and applications.
