Wiz: Your opinion on Google/Doubleclick merger?????

Roy Ayres · From: Riverview, Florida, USA, R.I.P.

I spotted this in yesterday's St. Petersburg, FL Times -- then found it this morning on line. I am pasting in the entire article. Note, in particular, the few paragraphs beginning with Paragraph 10.

It sounds as if our personal data will be available online if this merger takes place. So, Wiz, would you give us your opinion on this matter?

Thanks,
Roy Ayres

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Business
May 29, 2007
Google-DoubleClick Merger Up For FTC Review
By Roy Mark

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) plans to investigate any antitrust implications of Google's proposed $3.1 billion acquisition of online advertising firm DoubleClick. The merger would combine two of the biggest players in online advertising.

An FTC spokesman said Monday morning all investigations are non-public, but confirmed the agency was opening a probe into the merger. Sources close to the deal told internetnews.com an FTC review rarely results in blocking a merger.

Although Google (Quote) and privately held DoubleClick deal in online advertising, their approach differs. Google's AdSense business is algorithm-driven and based on clickable links, while DoubleClick places targeted banner ads on popular sites.

"We are confident that upon further review the FTC will conclude that this acquisition poses no risk to competition and should be approved," Dan Harrison, Google's senior corporate counsel, said in a statement.

After Google announced the deal in April, the search giant filed the required paperwork under the Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Act that merging parties notify the FTC and the Department of Justice (DoJ). The FTC and DoJ then have 30 days to decide if an investigation is warranted and which agency will handle it.

That window closed Friday and the FTC notified Google and DoubleClick it was seeking further information on the merger.

Harrison said in Google's statement that a number independent analysts and academics have looked at the proposed deal and concluded, "The online advertising industry is a dynamic and evolving space."

Harrison also pointed to the flurry of online advertising mergers announced after the Google-DoubleClick deal, including Microsoft's proposed $6 billion acquisition of aQuantive and Yahoo's intent to buy Right Media for $680 million.

"Rich competition in this industry will bring more relevant ads to consumers and more choices for advertisers and Webs ite publishers," Harrison said.

Shortly after the Google-DoubleClick deal was announced, three privacy groups filed a complaint with the FTC, contending the deal would give Google the unprecedented ability to "record, analyze, track and profile" the activities of Internet users, a charge both Google and DoubleClick were quick to deny.

"Google's proposed acquisition of DoubleClick will give one company access to more information about the Internet activities of consumers than any other company in the world," the complaint states. "Moreover, Google will operate with virtually no legal obligation to ensure the privacy, security and accuracy of the personal data that it collects."

The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), the Center for Digital Democracy and the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (U.S. PIRG) also claim that at least some the data is personally identifiable information.

The privacy groups want DoubleClick to remove user-identified cookies and "other persistent pseudonymic" identifiers from all corporate records and databases prior to any transfer to Google.

In addition, it wants the FTC to require Google to publicly present a privacy plan to comply with government and industry standards as a condition of the deal. It also hopes to force Google to establish a "meaningful" data-destruction policy and offer consumers "reasonable access" to all personally identifiable data held by the company.

In late April, Google said the complaint, "Utterly fails to identify any practice that does not comply with accepted privacy standards." DoubleClick added, "Google would not be able to match its search data to the data collected by DoubleClick, as DoubleClick does not have the right to use its clients' data for such purposes."

Also over the three-day holiday weekend in the U.S., reports surfaced that the European Union (EU) is investigating whether Google's privacy policies conform to European privacy rules. According to the Associated Press, Google will address the EU's concerns by the end of June.
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Wiz Feinberg · From: Mid-Michigan, USA

Privacy as our parents knew it is fast becoming a thing of the past. The computer/Information age is about making information about people, places and things available to everybody. While some types of information cannot be divulged without proper credentials, there is a lot of personal information available about you and me, and it is growing all the time. It is a fact of our times that details about our personal lives will become available to the World due to our financial transactions, or thoughts we put into indexable forum/blog posts, or things our kids say about themselves on social networking websites. Websites like this and mine are crawled by all manner of robots seeking information they can add to various indexes, all in the hope of selling that information to advertisers trying to reach the eyeballs of people searching for this information.

Doubleclick is a hugely successful advertising company that made a fortune profiling the people who clicked (or didn't click) on ads they controlled, with the goal of serving the most relevant ads to people they matched by their viewing/surfing habits. They are really good at matching advertising to individuals.

Google is the world's most successful search engine. GoogleBot visits every website, forum and blog to harvest text and information, all of which is added to unbelievably huge server farms where is is analyzed and placed into symantic indexes. When people search Google for keywords, or phrases, or products, their huge databases return the most relevant results as can be identified. Delivering accurate information is Google's forte. But they have to make a lot of money to stay in business and run all of these servers and employ all the geniuses needed to make all this stuff work.

To make this money, in addidition to seling stock in the company Google uses advertising models to make tremendous profits. They sell advertising in the form of AdWords to people with something to sell. Every search results page features Google Adsense ads on top and in the right sidebars. If a searcher clicks on those ads the company who placed it (as an AdWords ad) pays Google a commission for the lead.

I don't think anybody or anything is going to be able to stand in the way of the merger between Google and DoubleClick. Time will tell if this is a good thing or a bad thing for the little man.
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Roy Ayres · From: Riverview, Florida, USA, R.I.P.

Thanks, Wiz, for your insight and comments. As I understand you, the subject merger is an example of our new "way of life" in this age of technology. I suppose we may as well get used to it.
_________________
Pioneers of Western Swing HOF, Seattle 2005
Western Swing Music HOF, Sacramento 2006
International Steel Guitar HOF, St.Louis 2007
Visit my Web Site at RoysFootprints.com
Browse my Photo Album and be sure to sign my Guest Book.

Wiz Feinberg · From: Mid-Michigan, USA

That is how I see it Roy. And, if it wasn't Doubleclick it would be a similar type of company being acquired. Big fish eat smaller fish and really big fish can even eat fish the same size as themselves, after breaking them up into smaller pieces.
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Security Consultant
Twitter: @Wizcrafts
Main web pages: Wiztunes Steel Guitar website | Wiz's Security Blog | My Webmaster Services | Wiz's Security Blog

Donny Hinson · From: Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.

I feel that GOOGLE, in their ever-increasing effort to generate revenue, has lost much of it's usefullness lately. Many searches I do seem to refer me first to sites such as "shop.com", or ebay, who probably pay premiums to have their sites get a "primary listing status". As in radio and TV, the commercial aspects soon ruin the enjoyment of the original format. Constant re-directing and pop-up ads have made me eliminate (avoid) many websites I used to visit quite regularly. IMHO, GOOGLE has gone from a useful search engine to just another purveyor of commercial tripe.

Any company that gets too big soon looses it's focus on service for the individual.

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