FTC Investigating Google-DoubleClick Deal

An anonymous reader writes "The New York Times is covering FTC interest in Google's purchase of the DoubleClick service. The investigation is in response to privacy group concerns over the amount of information Google will have available to it via its ad service and DoubleClick. Between a few days and a week from now the FTC should either declare the all clear, or elevate the process to a 'second request' stage. That would indicate more serious issues the federal body has an interest in. Google stated it was confident the purchase would hold up under scrutiny. 'In the complaint, the groups noted that Google collects the search histories of its users, while DoubleClick tracks what Web sites people visit. The merger, according to their complaint, would give one company access to more information about the Internet activities of consumers than any other company in the world.'"

Comments

Weird wording

[niconorsk]

The merger, according to their complaint, would give one company access to more information about the Internet activities of consumers than any other company in the world. Wasn't this the case for Google before they bought Google? Not to dismiss their worries(Google freaks me out sometimes), but they could have found a better way to voice them.

Re:If your worried

[Aladrin]

Seriously? You think the fact that Google bought DoubleClick will even be widely known? Or that they will suddenly stop blocking DC because it's owned by the 'good guys', even though absolutely nothing about the company has changed?

Not likely. It's much more likely the DC's mud will rub off on Google, and people will be more likely to block it as well.

Since I've got NoScript installed now, I didn't bother to unblock Google's traffic stuff. It doesn't do anything for -me-, so it stays blocked.

Re:So.. who's number one right now?

[ookabooka]

Am I the only one wondering who has the most information right now and why there isn't a complaint against that company already with the FTC?
Well I think its more like right now Double click and Google have roughly the same "amount" of information, but since they are in different areas its hard to quantify. After the merger, when one heuristically quantifies the amount of information they have compared to other companies, one concludes that Google definitely has "more" than the other companies.

So think of it like this: Who has more fruit, John with apples, Betsy with oranges, or Fran with tomatoes(a fruit). Well they all have the same "amount" of fruit, though they are different in terms of weight, amount of vitamin C, etc. But if John and Betsy combine forces, it is easier to say that Fran has "less" fruit than John & Betsy LLC.