T
Taylor
"Google Watch" (stop this company from becoming evil):
http://wreckingboy.livejournal.com/318545.html
Daily News Thursday, December 20, 2007
U.S. Regulators Clear Google-DoubleClick Deal
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission antitrust regulators have approved
Google Inc.'s $3.1 billion purchase of DoubleClick Inc.
"After carefully reviewing the evidence, we have concluded that
Google's proposed acquisition of DoubleClick is unlikely to
substantially lessen competition," the Federal Trade Commission said
Thursday in a statement cited by Associated Press.
The deal is still under review in Europe; it was first proposed last
April, and it described a combination of Google's leading position in
online text ads with DoubleClick's ad-serving tools.
The five-member commission voted 4-1 in favor of the deal.
Commissioner Pamela Jones Harbour dissented "because I make alternate
predictions about where this market is heading, and the transformative
role the combined Google/DoubleClick will play if the proposed
acquisition is consummated."
Even before receiving approval, the deal had many industry observers
and online privacy advocates concerned over its potential
implications.
In a release from the U.S.-based Center for Digital Democracy,
Executive Director Jeff Chester stated:
"The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) sidestepped its responsibility
today when it approved the merger of two companies whose new, extended
data-collection reach will give it unprecedented access to track our
every move throughout the digital landscape. By permitting Google to
combine the personal details, gleaned from our searches online and
YouTube downloads, with the vast repository of information collected
by DoubleClick, the FTC has sanctioned the creation of a new digital
data colossus.
The FTC is supposed to protect the privacy of Americans in the digital
age. The excuse offered by the majority of the commission--that
consumer privacy can't be addressed by current antitrust law--reveals
a lack of leadership and determination to protect U.S. consumers. It's
clear that this merger--and the ones that follow--will be about
companies creating the twenty-first-century's equivalent of railroad,
steel, and oil
monopolies in the past. The FTC was created to protect Americans from
the dangers of such monopolies, something the agency failed to do
today.
"Despite the FTC's claims, privacy is most certainly an anti-trust
issue. A key component of the online market dominance that companies
such as Google have achieved is the aggregation and analysis of
consumer profiles, including the merger of far-flung data sets and
vast data warehouses that only a handful of companies now have at
their disposal.
"Since the merger was announced, CDD has provided abundant evidence to
the
FTC that Google will now be able to extend still further its market
dominance over online advertising. But several commissioners
mistakenly believe that we are still living back in the dot-com boom
of the 1990s, when barriers to market entry were low. Its analysis of
the market is flawed. With today's decision, the FTC is helping ensure
that U.S.
consumers will have to live under the shadow of an even bigger digital
giant, with a privacy time bomb ticking in the background."
Having side-stepped its responsibility to protect both competition and
privacy, advocates will press the European Commission to impose the
necessary safeguards on the proposed Google acquisition of
DoubleClick. Congress too will need to conduct oversight hearings into
how the FTC conducted this merger review. Staff privacy principles put
out for
comment is not a substitution for adopting specific safeguards for
this merger.
The CDD especially commends Commissioner Pamela Harbour, who dissented
today,
for her insightful and independent critique. Commissioner Jon
Leibowitz also raised the critical privacy issues in his thoughtful
separate statement."
http://wreckingboy.livejournal.com/318545.html
Daily News Thursday, December 20, 2007
U.S. Regulators Clear Google-DoubleClick Deal
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission antitrust regulators have approved
Google Inc.'s $3.1 billion purchase of DoubleClick Inc.
"After carefully reviewing the evidence, we have concluded that
Google's proposed acquisition of DoubleClick is unlikely to
substantially lessen competition," the Federal Trade Commission said
Thursday in a statement cited by Associated Press.
The deal is still under review in Europe; it was first proposed last
April, and it described a combination of Google's leading position in
online text ads with DoubleClick's ad-serving tools.
The five-member commission voted 4-1 in favor of the deal.
Commissioner Pamela Jones Harbour dissented "because I make alternate
predictions about where this market is heading, and the transformative
role the combined Google/DoubleClick will play if the proposed
acquisition is consummated."
Even before receiving approval, the deal had many industry observers
and online privacy advocates concerned over its potential
implications.
In a release from the U.S.-based Center for Digital Democracy,
Executive Director Jeff Chester stated:
"The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) sidestepped its responsibility
today when it approved the merger of two companies whose new, extended
data-collection reach will give it unprecedented access to track our
every move throughout the digital landscape. By permitting Google to
combine the personal details, gleaned from our searches online and
YouTube downloads, with the vast repository of information collected
by DoubleClick, the FTC has sanctioned the creation of a new digital
data colossus.
The FTC is supposed to protect the privacy of Americans in the digital
age. The excuse offered by the majority of the commission--that
consumer privacy can't be addressed by current antitrust law--reveals
a lack of leadership and determination to protect U.S. consumers. It's
clear that this merger--and the ones that follow--will be about
companies creating the twenty-first-century's equivalent of railroad,
steel, and oil
monopolies in the past. The FTC was created to protect Americans from
the dangers of such monopolies, something the agency failed to do
today.
"Despite the FTC's claims, privacy is most certainly an anti-trust
issue. A key component of the online market dominance that companies
such as Google have achieved is the aggregation and analysis of
consumer profiles, including the merger of far-flung data sets and
vast data warehouses that only a handful of companies now have at
their disposal.
"Since the merger was announced, CDD has provided abundant evidence to
the
FTC that Google will now be able to extend still further its market
dominance over online advertising. But several commissioners
mistakenly believe that we are still living back in the dot-com boom
of the 1990s, when barriers to market entry were low. Its analysis of
the market is flawed. With today's decision, the FTC is helping ensure
that U.S.
consumers will have to live under the shadow of an even bigger digital
giant, with a privacy time bomb ticking in the background."
Having side-stepped its responsibility to protect both competition and
privacy, advocates will press the European Commission to impose the
necessary safeguards on the proposed Google acquisition of
DoubleClick. Congress too will need to conduct oversight hearings into
how the FTC conducted this merger review. Staff privacy principles put
out for
comment is not a substitution for adopting specific safeguards for
this merger.
The CDD especially commends Commissioner Pamela Harbour, who dissented
today,
for her insightful and independent critique. Commissioner Jon
Leibowitz also raised the critical privacy issues in his thoughtful
separate statement."