…Rotenberg said he hasn't returned those phone calls. "They have the right to pursue what they're interested in," he said. "We're not part of any coalition with them."
Rotenberg said he rejected Google's request for a meeting to explain its position, too.
"Our view on all of this is: it's important to stay focused on the internet privacy issue," he said in a telephone interview. "People may agree with us for their own reasons, because they're trying to block Google's acquisition of another company, but that's not going to be the reason we're doing it."
Similarly, in the past, according to Rotenberg, when it called for a FTC investigation into privacy issues surrounding Microsoft's Passport service, Epic told AOL, which the privacy group said had made an offer to team up: "No, thank you. We want to pursue this independently."
Epic has even created a simple rectangular sticker to match the campaign, which it displays on the top of its website. Using Google's signature blue-red-yellow-green letters on a white background, it spells out "Privacy?". "They look really sharp on laptops," Rotenberg said, adding that they may do double duty as party favours, and mugs are also in the works.
The CDD's Jeff Chester is Google's other chief antagonist among non-profit groups.
For the last few months, he's been busy organising meetings with nearly anyone in a position to scuttle the DoubleClick merger. Chester says the list includes FTC commissioners Jon Leibowitz, Pamela Jones Harbour and William Kovacic, with another meeting scheduled with commissioner J Thomas Rosch. CDD and Epic also have briefed the staffers for the House Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee, the House Energy and Commerce Committee staff, and their Senate counterparts, Chester said.
CDD has also brought in a sympathetic University of Pennsylvania professor named Joseph Turow, of the Annenberg School for Communication, to brief staffers on why he believes Google's purchase of DoubleClick would lead to worrisome consolidation of the advertising industry.
An aide to the House Energy and Commerce Committee, who asked to remain anonymous, confirmed that staffers had met already with Epic, US PIRG (which did not return phone calls for comment), CDD and Microsoft. Separate meetings are pending, the aide said, with Google and the EU. The committee is also planning to hold a non-public briefing with FTC staff on the issue.
Staffers for the Senate Judiciary Committee, which presides over antitrust issues, largely declined to comment on their meetings except to confirm both Google and Microsoft representatives have paid visits. Senator Herb Kohl has indicated the Senate Judiciary antitrust panel he leads plans to examine the proposed deal.
"We are keeping up a steady stream of information to all the key participants at the FTC and in the House and Senate about the problems with the merger, both in terms of the market structure issues and the data collection," Chester said.
Unlike Epic, Chester said his organisation contacted Microsoft for a briefing on the company's views, but said his group has never accepted any payments from the company and is not co-ordinating lobbying efforts. Chester said he has also approached major advertising-industry and media companies about where they stand on the merger and heard some concerns, but would not reveal details.
"Clearly, the reason this deal has the kind of visibility it does is because Google has powerful competitors," Chester said. "Sadly, one wonders how the public interest concerns would be addressed if it weren't major vested interests."
A representative for telecommunications giant Verizon Communications said he was not aware of any efforts his employer had taken to block the DoubleClick acquisition. Yahoo, which has reportedly been hostile to it, did not respond to a request for comment.
CNET News.com's Elinor Mills contributed to this report.
