Mr_Christopher
Posts: 1238
Joined: Jan. 2006
|
I'm not sure if this topic is cool here but here goes...
Google Refuses Demand for Search Information
Government Asked 4 Firms for Data in Effort to Revive Anti-Porn Law
By Arshad Mohammed
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, January 20, 2006; Page A01
The Justice Department said yesterday that it subpoenaed four major Internet companies for data on what people search for on the Web as part of an eight-year battle over a federal law designed to shield children from online pornography.
Three of the companies responded to some degree, but Google Inc. said it was resisting the demand. Privacy advocates said the subpoenas raised deep concerns about the government's ability to track what ordinary people view on the Internet...
Read Entire Article
This is weird on many fronts. First of all, let's talk about the strong arm tactic being employed by the Federal government. Give us your records or else...
Why are they not approaching Google and other search engines and offering to pay for this kind of proprietary and private data like everyone else would?
Second of all, what gives them the right to demand this kind of data. Google has not broken any laws, is not a party to a lawsuit, so why are their records subject to a subpoena? You lawyer types will have to help me understand that one.
And I am stunned that Yahoo and MSN apparently rolled over for the Feds and handed them their search records. I loath anything Yahoo or MSN and would not search for bread crumbs on their site if I were starving to death, but come on. What are they now, honorary G-Men? Did the feds give Bill Gates a Junior Deputy Badge to wear after MSN handed them their search records?
If the Feds want to monitor seach habits they should build a search engine, or buy a search engine, or contract with a search engine to provide them that data.
We live in scary times and just because Bush will be leaving the White House in a few years does not mean another one just like him will not be taking his spot.
In fact in view of where he and his kind have taken us over the last 6 years I suspect his replacement will be cut from the same cloth.
--------------
Uncommon Descent is a moral cesspool, a festering intellectual ghetto that intoxicates and degrades its inhabitants - Stephen Matheson
|
