October 28, 2003

If Google becomes public, it could put the spotlight on issues that until now have been mainly restricted to the nether regions of the web, where conspiracy theorists and computer geeks meet.

A proposed flotation of the internet search engine, Google, could see the company face tough questions about privacy issues troubling some web activists. The search engine is said to be close to selling shares in itself for the first time, a deal that could raise anything between $15 billion and $25 billion.

Critics say that Google is such a successful operation that it is close to being a monopoly that should be policed in the public interest. Others worry that Google is in danger of becoming an Orwellian Big Brother, because it collects information about which websites users visit and is said to hold on to that information, seemingly forever.

Google-watch.org, a website run by Daniel Brandt, says: "With 200m searches per day, Google amounts to a privacy disaster waiting to happen." Mr Brandt is not a disinterested party - he has a longrunning dispute with Google because it does not, in his view, promote his own website sufficiently.

For this reason defenders, such as google-watch-watch, have sprung up. However, fears do remain that the company could unwittingly become a tool of the government. Google has said that it will hand over records if ordered to do so by a court, because it is a law-abiding company.

Mr Brandt says the point is how long the search engine retains the information it collects and the control it exerts over internet entrepreneurs who must seek Google's approval if they are to stay in business. In a recent interview, Google co-founder Sergey Brin said: "I think people tend to exaggerate Google's significance. Some say Google is God. Others say Google is Satan. But if they think Google is too powerful, remember that with search engines all it takes is a single click to go to another search engine. People come to Google because they choose to."

According to several media reports, Google has contacted at least a dozen investment banks to discuss a share sale that could happen early next year. This flotation may be done via an online auction, which could greatly reduce the fees bankers would expect to receive for a deal of this size.

The company was founded by Sergey Brin and Larry Page in 1998 and quickly became the most popular search engine in the world.

Source: The Telegraph.co.uk

        

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