INTERNET : MEPS SCRUTINISE GOOGLE-DOUBLECLICK MERGER.

The members of the European Parliament's Committee on Civil Liberties held a debate on 21 January on the proposed merger, worth US$3.1 billion, between Google and DoubleClick. During the public hearing, several speakers warned of the risks this project may pose top personal data protection.

If the Google-DoubleClick merger, announced in April last year, is controversial, it is because the first search engine in the world will be able to use, in addition to its own base of information (though web surfers' searches and the content of e-mails in the GMail accounts), tools belonging to DoubleClick, the leader in the market of online targeted advertising or behavioural marketing', and therefore intensify the tracing and behavioural and geographic profiling of users.

This did not prevent Google, on 20 December 2007, from getting the green light from the US competition authority, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which found no anti-competitive threat in the proposed merger for the very lucrative online advertising sector (worth US$27 billion).

Since then, pressure from defenders of freedoms and consumers - as well as from competitors (Yahoo!, Microsoft), suppliers of internet content and newspapers - has been put on the European Commission. It has nonetheless specified that it would give its decision on 2 April on the basis of an anti-trust investigation.

Independently of the merger, European political groups must think about a strategy, Community or not, believed MEP Jean-Marie Cavada (ALDE, France) before opening the hearing. "In the case where these guidelines are insufficient, there is no need to rule out a legislative intervention clarifying the few principles to follow which could inspire a simple doctrine: whatever the media used to disperse or diffuse information, the protection of individuals, groups of individuals or democratic principles must remain the same," he told journalists.

Under the cover of gratuitousness, advertisements are more and more targeted, "but these services are not free for consumers who give up their data," said Cornelia Kutterer of the European Consumers' Organisation (BEUC), who recently addressed her concerns to Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes.

"Think about the large search engines, they can reveal, other than your name - which is not too serious - your medical problems, medical history, your financial interests, your sexual preference, your political involvements, your beliefs and a series of things...

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