WebProNews

House Republican Joe Barton from Texas has a burr in his saddle about Google - 24 burrs, to be precise, some in multiple parts. It is a testament to Google's usefulness that despite the lengthy list of complaints he has sent to Eric Schmidt, Barton has a link to Google in the sidebar of his website.

Barton has a position on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, putting him in a place where he can make political hay of Internet causes. Declan McCullagh obtained Barton's blistering little screed to Schmidt; for some reason the Congressman's otherwise up to date website does not have it posted.

The letter requests a reply to its lengthy contents by December 18th. Barton wants the Committee to "better understand the privacy and consumer protection implications" of Google's proposed acquisition of DoubleClick.

If such a response were to contain detailed answers to its questions, the reply would become the hottest read in the technology industry. Several questions deal with how Google delivers advertisements to users of its services, along with Barton's questions on privacy and data retention.

We think Google would sooner switch its famed cafeterias to using school lunch menus before feeding this kind of information to Congress.

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