The German state of Schleswig-Holstein is the latest party to raise objections to the Google/DoubleClick merger. Thilo Weichert, Schleswig-Holstein's data protection commissioner, claimed that the
$3.1 billion merger will threaten user privacy.
Weichert insisted in an open letter to European Union Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes that the merging of the two companies' databases
would represent a real threat.
"At present we have to assume that, in the event of a takeover of DoubleClick, its databases will be integrated into Google's, with the result that fundamental
provisions of the European Data Protection Directive will be violated," he said.