Google’s goal: public records on the Web

By providing free consulting and some software, Google Inc. is helping state governments make reams of public records that are now unavailable or hard to find easily accessible to Web surfers.

The Internet search company hopes to eventually persuade federal agencies to employ the same tools -- an effort that excites advocates of open government but worries some consumer privacy experts.

Google announced Monday that it had partnered with four states -- Arizona, California, Utah and Virginia -- to remove technical barriers that had prevented its search engine, as well as those of Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc., from gaining access to public records that deal with education, real estate, healthcare and the environment.

Patrice McDermott, director of OpenTheGovernment.org, a coalition of watchdog groups that advocate greater government openness and accountability, lauded Google’s efforts. But privacy advocates said they were worried about unintended consequences, cautioning that some records might contain confidential information that should not be widely available.

California’s chief information officer, Clark Kelso, said that he also was concerned about such privacy issues and that he had directed all state agencies to redact Social Security numbers and other confidential information from documents that now would be available online.