The German government wants to "squeeze" Google into revealing more details about the company's notoriously secret algorithm behind its searches.
This initiative will certainly delight Google's competitors, but the American company is expected to stubbornly refuse.
In an interview with the Financial Times, German Justice Minister Heiko Maas stressed that Google must become “more transparent” about the algorithm it uses to rank users’ search results, as this ranking has significant positive or negative implications for a user, a company or a country.
The German tough stance is in line with - and fuels - the corresponding stance of the European Commission, which shows no willingness to compromise with Google in the dispute it has started with it, accusing it of exploiting the dominant position it has acquired in the online market internationally.
“Ultimately, the whole issue is about how transparent the algorithms Google uses to rank its search results are. When a search engine has such an impact on economic growth, that is an issue that we need to address,”said Heiko Maas, who is also responsible for consumer protection. “We all use the internet and we know that anyone who is not at the top of the search results is as if they don’t exist,” he added.
Google's critics say its secret weapon, its search algorithms, are being manipulated to hurt its competitors, and they are calling for greater transparency. Google counters that doing so would expose its search engine to a flood of spam, and insists that it cannot give away its trade secrets to its rivals for free.
Google has a 90% to 95% share of the search market in the European Union, compared to 68% in the US. That is why, as the German minister said, “Google’s power over consumers and market players is impressive. We need to consider what preventive measures should be taken so that this power does not become a tool for abuse.” Heiko Maas went so far as to say that breaking up Google could be considered as a “last resort.”
Following the revelations by Edward Snowden (and others) regarding online spying in Europe by the American intelligence services (mainly the NSA), the German government seems determined to promote stricter regulations on the protection of the personal data of European users and European state secrets.
Source: tovima.gr
