BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - Google Inc. said Friday it had filed for European Union permission to take over online ad tracker DoubleClick, a US$3.1 billion (euro2.29 billion) deal that has already stirred up rivals and data privacy advocates concerned about the control it will give the company over Internet advertising. Google said the company had already asked EU regulators two months ago to look into "all aspects of the transaction,'' before filing for official approval. Other technology companies, who did not want to be named because the case was confidential, said they have received questionnaires from the European Commission asking for their views on the deal _ a highly unusual move for regulators. The deal has already triggered concern from Europe's main consumers lobby and rivals because it gives Google access to a huge amount of data on how people use the Web and what they search for, which is valuable to advertisers. The European Consumers Organization BEUC said in July that it feared the takeover would damage EU privacy rights and limit consumers' choice of Web content. Their plea came after U.S. consumer privacy advocacy groups asked the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to look at how the two companies, when combined, could exploit enormous amounts of personal information about users as they click on Web pages and applications. The world's largest Internet search engine relies on its cookies and user logs to compile information of the search terms entered into specific Web browsers as well as other potentially sensitive online information. The company says the data help its search engine better understand its users so it can deliver more relevant results and advertisements. Google's privacy policies are already being looked at by an EU panel of national data protection officers to see if it stores search information for too long. Trying to soothe EU concerns, the company has offered to cut the time it retains data on user searches from the current 24 months to 18 months, saying this was going further than most other search engines. New York-based DoubleClick helps its customers place and track online advertising, including search ads, which Google _ more than its nearest search competitors Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp. _ has turned into an extremely lucrative business. BEUC said that people who agreed to give their details to DoubleClick could not have imagined this would be transferred to Google _ and this would be worse for the many consumers who are unaware that the companies build up profiles about users. Google already has a 90 percent share of the German search market, with the same in Spain and slightly less in France and Britain, it said. DoubleClick had been the target of a bidding war between Microsoft and Google. Though Google commands the bulk of the online advertising search market, the addition of DoubleClick's technology and client network would further its efforts to branch out beyond its core ad offerings. - AP http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/9/21/apworld/20070921221907&sec=apworld