As expected, Google's $3.1bn acquisition of Doubleclick is facing government scrutiny. But the government inquiry into the deal — which would combine the dominant search engine in the US with the biggest middleman for graphical ads — is to be led by the Federal Trade Commission, rather than the Department of Justice, according to the New York Times. That suggests the focus will be, not on Googleclick's market power, but on the exploitation by Google of information it has on users' search requests. The FTC, which is responsible for safeguarding consumer privacy, limited Doubleclick's ability to profile individuals when it acquired Abacus, a database of consumers' real-world purchases, in 1999. It's likely the agency will similarly hobble Doubleclick's latest transaction, as a condition of approval.

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