Google recently announced that they will soon be helping state governments make public records easily accessible to Internet users. The company has partnered with Arizona, California, and Virginia to remove technical barriers that had prevented search engines from accessing public records pertaining to education, real estate, health care and the environment.
These newly available records will not be exclusive to the search engines owned by Google, Yahoo and Microsoft. Officials from states partnering with Google have expressed hope that this initiative will make it easier for average citizens to navigate agency Web sites.
Currently, government computer systems aren’t programmed in a way that allows commercial search engines to access their databases. Google plans to fix this problem by creating virtual roadmaps which will allow search engines to find the databases that store public records. They’ve been working on this technology for approximately six months according to the AP.
Many privacy advocates are concerned about this movement due to the personal and confidential nature of the documents that will soon become available so widely. It’s been pointed out that Google is embroiled in controversy surrounding privacy issues at this time. The EPIC recently filed complaint with the Federal Trade Commission calling for an investigation of Google’s practice of tracking Internet search users who access government date in order to target ads at them. The publication of personal social security numbers is also a major concern of some.
Source : www.seohelp.net
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