Google’s new social search feature, “Search Plus You World”, will potentially results in make it to face the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over its integration of Google+ in its search. The EPIC group, Electronic Privacy Information Center, may be filling a complaint with U.S. FTC.
Google introduced big changes to its search engine in the start if this week, began by incorporating content from Google+ into search results. Google+, who may number around 40 million+ users, will now customized the search results as per one’s particular interests and will also includes photos and comments from Google+ connections.
The complaint from the privacy watchdog organization is related to privacy and anti-trust concerns over search engine giant’s new feature.
As per the LA Times report, Marc Rotenberg, EPIC executive director said that “they believe this is something that the FTC needs to look at”. He even frames out the changes as an attempt by Google to compete with the social networking giant, Facebook, which is having 800 million+ users.
Shortly after Google announced its new social feature, Twitter expressed its views and mentions even it as “bad day for internet”. Responding to Twitter, Google, through Google+ this morning, saying that it was “a bit surprised after seeing twitter such comments, as they chose not to renew the agreement with us last summer, which ended in march-2011”.
About Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC):
Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) is a public interest research group in Washington, D.C. It was established in 1994 to focus public attention on emerging civil liberties issues and to protect privacy, the First Amendment, and constitutional values in the information age. EPIC pursues a wide range of activities, including privacy research, public education, conferences, litigation, publications, and advocacy.
