Tuesday, October 09, 2007

Google gets into 'data privacy' hot water

Google's proposed purchase of online ad giant DoubleClick would lead to "a massive violation of data privacy rights", says a German data protection expert.

As reported by web legal experts Out-law.com, the Data Protection Commissioner of the German state of Shleswig-Holstein Thilo Weichert has sent his views to Europe's Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes saying that the $3.1 billion merger would result in the "fundamental provisions of the European Data Protection Directive [being] violated."

Weichert's views rely on the assumption "that in the event of a takeover of DoubleClick the databases of that company will be integrated into those of Google" he said.

"Such an approach contradicts fundamental data privacy principles of the European Union: limited specific use, transparency, the right to object, the protection of sensitive data and the right to having data deleted," he wrote in the letter.

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