US Gov wants to get hold of Google records

Perhaps someone in government has discovered AdSense.

There is no better way to find niches.

Pete

 

Am I the only one who thinks that google should be cooperating with the u.s. government on this issue? I for one think that as long as the information doesn't point to specific individuals, but is just search trends and information, and might help catch more child molestors, it's not a question of privacy.

I'm almost inclined to think that google is holding the information just to protect their pocket book.

Here's the real question. Does the government want specific i.p.'s and their search history. If they don't then it's bad. If they just want search trends and information, then google should help.

 

I dont think the end justifies the means.

This is a slippery slope. These things never end as they start, they always move deeper and deeper and become more of an invasion of privacy.

Ask yourself... Whats next? How about the government wants access to who searches for what, so if they see something they want to look more at they can see everything YOU searched for, what you visited, etc etc etc. People will become afraid to use search engines out of fear of being watched.

 

i wouldn't say that was the sole cause of the recent decline if it was at all.

 

you do realize the gov. does not want user info, they want 1 million searches to see how much porn is in there, I am of 2 minds but think that if porn is in searches that minors can see google should comply!

 

Now - wait awhile...

 

It's not about child molesters. It's about kids watching porn, so its the other way around.

And this kinda stuff is just the first step, first you get used with the idea that your privacy could be invaded to stop evil people and after that they store everything you do in a giant database.

I'm an European and I'm over protective of my privacy so I'm not really objective on this.

 

Good to see that Google is standing up to this fishing expedition.

Unfortunately, it seems that Google records quite a bit of information about its users, which I do not particularly like. But at least it's not just willy-nilly turning that information over for this fishing expedition.

Do you really want the feds showing up at your door and impounding your computer for evidence because you searched for "britney spears" and on page 350 of the search results, that you didn't even get to, an illegal site was ready to show up in the results?

 

Hi

Again this is not about porn or kids

If it were the Govenrnment would have asked for the search query's used and nothing else. In fact it could simply ask Google to build a keyword list for them.

It owns the database that all domain names are registered threw, so it does not need 1,000,000 random web addresses, as it knows each and everyone of the billions of web addresses there are.

This is about them wanting to search computers for issues dealing with the Patriot Act..

 

And for those who feel that Google should cooperate with the Government maybe you should ask the Shi Tao in jail for the next 9 years or so... if he thinks Yahoo should have co-operated with his giovernment..

 

"The Bush administration asked a federal judge to force Google to comply with a subpoena for the information, which would reveal the search terms of a broad swath of the search engine's visitors. Prosecutors are requesting a "random sampling" of 1 million Internet addresses accessible through Google's popular search engine, and a random sampling of 1 million search queries submitted to Google over a one-week period."

Yeah google has my credit card information, they read my emails, they know where I live, they close up satelite pictures of my house, they provide the map to drive you there and in some cities they'll even help you get a ride there. But the government wants NON IDENTIFYING INFORMATION to protect kids from porn (which I hope we can agree is a bad things for kids to see) and we start to freak out. Use your brains and put down the pipe people.

The slippery slope argument is merely an attempt to join to unrelated ideas. The government is not spying or stealing our privacy, they aren't asking for your private information because they know they couldn't get it. So they want to help protect kids from porn and get some data to do so. Help them out for heavens sake. I thought google was all about doing good in the world.

As for government involvement in this whole debacle, I for one would question whether it's their JOB to do such a thing, the efficacy of the whole operation etc. However, I don't see this as a privacy issue as it doesn't involve identifying anyone and anything about a particular anyone.

But Google knows my secrets, that's for sure.

 

Kids have parents to protect them from porn, don't they? We don't need filters on computers at public libraries that censor legitimate information on the off chance that an unsupervised kid comes across a "naughty" picture.

In Europe kids can see pictures of naked people outdoors. Similarly, I once saw an advertisement on a museum in Montreal that was a three story tall picture of a naked man. And yet, Canada and Europe aren't falling to pieces - in fact they have healthier people and less crime. But, then again, they're not terrified of everything outside the US, either.

 

Just for kicks, have you ever Googled yourself? Searched your own name? Most people do at some point.

How about other personal information, just to see if it's been published publicly or not? Perhaps your phone number? Address? Social Security number?

That's exactly the type of information that would be included in what the government is requesting here, so it's naive to suggest it's only NON IDENTIFYING INFORMATION--and without just cause there's no real reason to let this (or any) administration have that kind of free access.

Honestly, it's none of the government's business what we search for from the privacy of our own homes.

A better and more conclusive way to determine how and where children are gaining access to adult material would be to study actual children's web habits. Not demand a blanket sweep of legal search results in a fishing expedition like this.

 

Scott, the request is for search trends, not unique identifying information. Am I missing something here. If they don't have ips or usernames but only a database of searches and times and EVEN CITIES, no one will know who did it. I may be a little slow on the uptake, but not naive.

And yes, I have EVERYTHING about me on the net, that's not the point. The point is what is the information that the government actually requesting, and as long as it isn't information that can be identifying, then there SHOULDNT be an issue.

 

but this isn't a valid subpoena according to Federal Civil Procedures since the data requested is a trade secret/commercial information

http://www.law.cornell.edu/rules/frcp/Rule45.htm

 

I respect Google for not bowing down. The government thinks they can do whatever they want, whenever this want. The last time I checked, this is the US, not China or Russia.

 

lol, why try and get the search terms out of Google? Dogpile allows you to see what other people are searching for...

http://www.dogpile.com/info.dogpl/searchspy/

 

allthewhile, I meant that the notion of trusting that the government didn't want any identifying information was naive, not you personally--and hope I didn't offend you with my comment.

As I pointed out, there's a likely chance that plenty of identifying information would be included in the results that have been requested from Google.

There's also, as others have pointed out, no need for the government to demand this information from Google when they can easily (like many here do when planning their ad campaigns) find what people are searching for from other available sources.

Add in, as I've stated before, that the only way to get a valid trend of how and where children find porn online would be to study the real surfing habits of actual children and not by scanning random results of searches which may not include a single child's input in the first place--and I don't see how anyone can support this request.

There's a lot of ways to look at it, is the government over-reaching, is it a violation of Google's trade secrets, is it a violation of web user's privacy? The bottom line though, is that it simply doesn't make any sense in the first place to use the information requested for the purpose suggested, so that makes me (and others it seems) suspect of the motives behind the request.

If you want to know how and where kids find porn, study their online actions. Don't waste valuable time and resources (on the taxpayer's dime I might add) researching random search results from a million web users when it could contain little, if any valid information regarding children's surfing habits anyway.

Just my opinions though, they may not display properly in all browsers...

 

Another question to ask is what the government is really going to do with the information. Let's say they gather all the information and all the data they claim they need which i believe is BS. What are they going to do? Apply more internet laws in the states or start controlling activity, these are the only things that can be accomplished if they really need the info for porn related issue which is complete crap. I am with google all the way, do you really want to support more internet restictions? I sure dont.

This is an addition to the other posts.

 

Probably a good time to buy