Google making public records easier to find

Google is known as the premier search engine, and is now a mega-corporation. This makes sure that every move of Google is under the public scanner, and every action will be seen both positively and negatively.
Google is helping US states re-work their public records in a way that these will be easily accessible to search engines. Currently partnering with 4 states, Arizona, California, Utah and Virginia, Google is working on technology that will help make their records (dealing with education, real estate, health care, and environment). These records will be made accessible such that all search engines can access these records.
This is a good move, making records public increases the open nature of governments. This will also make it easier for citizens to navigate government web sites and find the information that they require.
At the same time, this initiative is making privacy groups worried that such information contains records identifying individuals such as social security numbers, and records that become more easily available should hide such records. As a response, states are working to ensure that such information still remains hidden.
Read this news article:

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 online 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.
Despite the obvious benefits of the Google initiative for those conducting Web searches, privacy advocates said they are worried about unintended consequences, saying some records may contain personal and confidential information that should not be widely available.
California's chief information officer, Clark Kelso, said he is concerned about the consumer privacy issues raised by this initiative and he has directed all state agencies to redact Social Security numbers and other confidential information from documents that now will be available online.