Privacy, Web Dominance Featured in Week’s Tech-Ethics News
Dec 17th, 2007 • Posted in: NewsCritics say Google’s ‘Knol’ project may mean too much dominance of ‘Net knowledge; protests over proposed merger or Google and DoubleClick hit new wrinkle; Microsoft denies rival’s claim that it unfairly dominates market by bundling its browser with Windows.
VARIOUS DATELINES
Questions about ethics, privacy, and the nature of knowledge figured in the top technology news of last week:
- An ambitious new project from Google called “Knol” is leading some to predict there’s an ethical problem looming. Knol — Google’s invented term for “unit of knowledge” — is an encyclopedia-like collection of articles, written by experts. Wired Magazine reports that Knol may pose a conflict of interest for Google because its search engine would likely refer users to Knol, and give Google increasing domination of the mechanism people use to access information online. According to Wired reporter Betsy Schiffman, although Google says it will rank Knol “appropriately” in search results, “it raises the question of whether Google can rank competitors objectively given that the search company may have a financial incentive to keep Google-owned content at the top of its search results.”
- The proposed acquisition by Google of the online ad firm DoubleClick, which has raised eyebrows over privacy issues, prompted another ethics stir last week when the chairman of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) refused to bow out of the agency’s pending review of the purchase. ComputerWorld reports that the Electronic Privacy Information Center and the Center for Digital Democracy asked Deborah Platt Majoras to recuse herself from the case because her husband is a member of a law firm advising DoubleClick. Majoras says she is not facing a conflict of interest because her husband is not involved in the current FTC case, according to the ComputerWorld report. The dispute centers on claims that merging the databases of Google, which tracks customer searches, and DoubleClick, which records Web behavior, would invade surfers’ privacy.
- Microsoft has disputed an antitrust claim leveled by a tiny rival in the browser business. Opera, based in Norway, filed a complaint with the European Commission arguing that Microsoft is abusing its market dominance by bundling its browser, Internet Explorer, with its Windows operating system, according to a report from technology network CNET. Microsoft says computer users have “complete freedom of choice to use and set as default any browser they wish.”
Sources: Wired, Dec. 15 — CNET, Dec. 15 — ComputerWorld, Dec. 15.
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