Washington – By providing free consulting and some software, Google Inc. is helping state governments make reams of public records that are now unavailable or hard to find online easily accessible to Web surfers.
The Internet search company hopes to eventually persuade federal agencies to employ the same tools – an effort that excites advocates of open government but worries some consumer-privacy experts.
Google plans to announce today that it has already partnered with four states – Arizona, California, Utah and Virginia – to remove technical barriers that had prevented its search engine, as well as those of Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc., from accessing tens of thousands of public records dealing with education, real estate, health care and the environment.
These newly available records will not be exclusive to the search engines owned by Google, Yahoo and Microsoft.
Patrice McDermott, director of OpenTheGovernment.org, a coalition of more than 65 watchdog groups that advocate greater government openness and accountability, lauded Google’s efforts.
Since the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, many public agencies have tried to restrict certain data from the Internet because of concerns about national security.
Privacy advocates said they are worried about unintended consequences of the Web searches, cautioning that some records may contain confidential information that should not be widely available.
Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Washington-based Electronic Privacy Information Center, said many public health and financial records shouldn’t necessarily be widely available because they often contain Social Security numbers. Such information should be redacted from records regardless of whether they’re viewed online or in person at a government office, he said.
Rotenberg also said Google has a “checkered past” on privacy, noting that the company tracks Internet search users who access government data in order to target ads at them. EPIC recently filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission urging it to investigate Google regarding such activities, as well as its proposed acquisition of online advertising company DoubleClick Inc.
