In
light of the latest government intrusion into the private sector,
I am dedicating the “First Impressions” to bring
attention to this latest affront. This is for those of you
who don’t watch the news. Those who do could probably
tell me a thing or two about the subject. The stations are
all abuzz about this latest “news maker”.
So you think that the web sites you visit and your surfing habits
are safe and are sacredly private. So what do you think the United
States fascist government has done now? Our illustrious U.S. Justice
Department has decided that all the major search engines will now
turn over their records as to every site that their customers have
visited from June through July last year. This is thinly veiled
as protecting children against pornography sites. Yah sure!
Yahoo and Microsoft were quick to comply with the government’s
request. America OnLine said it didn’t fully comply, but
did provide a list of search requests already publicly available
from other sources with releasing your private information. Google
said “Bite my shorts, no way man.”
What I want to know is why do they keep this stuff anyway? Could
it be the real source of our spam? Are they selling our information?
Are we being “sold out” I have always wondered how
these groups could provide a “free” service and be
sooo profitable while doing it.
Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp. (MSN), which operate the next most-used
search engines behind Google, confirmed that they had complied
with similar government subpoenas. America Online said it didn’t
fully comply with the subpoena but did provide a list of search
requests already publicly available from other sources.
Google contends that submitting to the subpoena would represent
a betrayal to its users, even if all personal information were
stripped from the search terms sought by the government. Acquiescing
to the request would suggest that it is willing to reveal information
about those who use its services.
Combined, Google, Yahoo, Microsoft’s MSN and AOL handle nearly
90 percent of all U.S. search requests, according to Nielsen/NetRatings.
As the Internet’s dominant search engine, Google has built
up a valuable storehouse of information that “makes it a
very attractive target for law enforcement,” said Chris Hoofnagle,
senior counsel for the Electronic Privacy Information Center.
It is not unusual for search requests to include names, medical
profiles or Social Security information, said Pam Dixon, executive
director for the World Privacy Forum. “This is exactly the
kind of thing we have been worrying about with search engines for
some time,” Dixon said. “Google should be commended
for fighting this.” And “When you are looking at that
blank search box, you should remember that what you fill can come
back to haunt you unless you take precautions”.
Your computer reveals a numerical address assigned by your Internet
provider. When you visit Google or any other Internet site, the
site can store that information, along with the date and time of
the visit. This information can be used by researchers, marketers,
or investigators to trace your information.
‘’Internet search engines provide an extraordinary
service,” said Representative Edward Markey “but the
preservation of that service [should] not rely on a bottomless,
timeless database that can do great damage despite good intentions. “Markey
said that he’d been working on the legislation since last
year, modeling it on a law that requires cable television firms
to destroy personal data about customers’ viewing habits.
Markey said that he will propose legislation that would force search
companies to destroy records containing personal information after ‘’a
reasonable period of time”.
I think that as citizens of a country we must stand up to this
rampant new version of McCarthyism. For those who remember the
mid 50s and the search for communists under every bush (pun intended),
this is the same, maybe even worse.
