DoubleClick deal raises EU privacy concerns

July 05, 2007|Associated Press

BRUSSELS -- Europe's major consumer group, BEUC, said yesterday 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.

Its plea to EU regulators comes after US consumer privacy advocates asked the Federal Trade Commission to look at how the two companies, when combined, would have access to an unprecedented amount of data on consumers' Web use and Internet search habits.

Cornelia Kutterer, BEUC's senior legal adviser, said the association 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 $3.1 billion deal.

"They have so far complementary databases with private data. If they merge them, this could lead to unmatched databases of profiles," Kutterer said . "If they can combine them, this could lead to a violation of user privacy rights."