Privacy Digest

PC World - Privacy Groups Oppose Microsoft-Yahoo Deal - Via PC World:

Regulatory agencies in both the U.S. and Europe must approved the proposed acquisition, which is already drawing ire.

Privacy groups are promising a fight before U.S. regulatory agencies if Microsoft 's offer to buy Yahoo for $44.6 billion is accepted, and the deal could face significant hurdles in Europe as well.

Microsoft announced that it sent an offer to Yahoo' s board of directors on Thursday, going public with the news Friday morning. Immediately, the executive directors of the Center for Digital Democracy (CDD) and the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) said the acquisition would raise serious privacy concerns.

Scrutiny Sought
CDD will press the U.S. Department of Justice, the Federal Trade Commission and Congress to "scrutinize this deal and impose the needed safeguards for it -- and the industry," said Jeffrey Chester, CDD's executive director. CDD and EPIC tried to stop Google's proposed acquisition of online ad service DoubleClick on privacy grounds before the FTC last year, but the FTC approved the deal in December.

The Microsoft-Yahoo deal, if consummated, would "create a powerful interactive Internet duopoly in online media," Chester said. "Google and Microsoft will have inordinate power to shape the online communications marketplace, including journalism, entertainment and advertising. There are consequences to democratic societies everywhere, as two digital gatekeepers are likely to control how the Internet and other interactive media evolve."

The proposed deal also underscores a need for new laws or regulations that protect consumer data, Chester added. "In an era when individuals are increasingly conducting their personal, social and political lives online, the corporations that control the digital experience will have a far-reaching influence over every aspect of society," he said. "Consumers will be more vulnerable to having their personal information become the property of the GoogleClick's and Microhoo's."

[...]

But a consolidating online market means users will have their data held by a small number of companies, said Professor Joseph Turow, at University of Pennsylvania school of communication.

"Microsoft's decision to buy Yahoo is a direct result of the decision by the FTC to allow Google to purchase DoubleClick," he said. "It is further evidence that despite the appearance of unlimited choice in the new media environment, people's activities will be tracked and shaped by a very small number of companies who care far more about surveillance and targeted advertising than the public interest."

The public needs to demand privacy scrutiny in the proposed deal, he said. "The federal government, which should have been the guardian of the public interest, has dropped the ball."

(Read Original Article - Via PC World.)