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As if things could not get any worse

Not content to secretly eavesdrop on American citizens without a warrant, the Bush administration is now demanding that internet search engines such as Yahoo and Google turn over millions of internet search requests and IP addresses.

Why? According to court papers obtained by the San Jose Mercury, the administration 'depicts the information as vital in its effort to restore online child protection laws that have been struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court.'  The government claims it needs the data to 'understand the behavior of current Web users, [and] to estimate how often Web users encounter harmful-to-minors material in the course of their searches."

Sounds like another big fishing expedition. Are the requests legal? Yahoo and others have already complied, but Google is refusing to. According to its attorney, 'Google's acceding to the request would suggest that it is willing to reveal information about those who use its services. This is not a perception that Google can accept.'

When will our nation's leaders ever learn? 

Posted by Mark Poole at 10:03 PM in Business, Politics
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Comments

I heard that on the news on Friday evening when driving home from Target... I wonder if they are going to start demanding records of what we buy at Target too. I don't think that they will learn anytime soon... quite frankly I don't think they care.

Posted by: CJ | January 22, 2006 1:31 AM

Good for Google. After the China incident, they needed to start doing something right. Peace, Jamie

Posted by: Jamie Arpin-Ricci | January 28, 2006 10:13 PM

Only problem is, Google (and others like Microsoft) seem ready to stand up to the US government when they think they can prevail, but not to the Chinese. Again and again, large US corporations have kow-towed to Chinese political interests when they wouldn't dream of acting the same way domestically. They figure the economic risk of compliance is worth it for the kind of long term entrenchment they are seeking.

Posted by: Mark Poole Author Profile Page | January 29, 2006 2:39 PM