Google. Porn and You
According to a poll released yesterday, 56% of Internet users believe that Google Inc. should refuse the federal government's demand that it turn over millions of search queries. More than a quarter of those polled say they will stop using Google if the company complies with the order.
Seeking to revive an online pornography law struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court, the Bush administration subpoenaed Google Inc. for a boatload of data. The feds want one million random Web addresses and records of all Google searches for a one-week period. Google has vowed to fight the order.
Yahoo, AOL and Microsoft have all complied with the order claiming that they turned over no personal information. Yeah, sure.
It's good to see conformation that Internet users don't want their personal search engine data getting into the hands of the government. This time, they aren't buying the child porn argument that the government has used before to limit free speech rights.
Federal investigators say they need the data to figure out how often porn shows up in on-line searches - and to help revive the 1998 Child Online Protection Act. The Act was struck down two years ago by the U.S. Supreme Court on First Amendment grounds. The government is overreaching again trying to seize the surfing records of people like you and me.
The Act would have required adults to use access codes or other forms of registration before they could see objectionable material on-line. It would have punished violators with jail time or fines of up to $50,000.
The government wants the Google data to argue that the law is more effective than filtering software which the high court ruled was better able to protect children. The issue is now before a federal court in Pennsylvania.
This has been a big teaching moment for lots of Internet users. Amazingly, more than three quarters of the poll respondents, or 77 percent, did not even know that Google collected information that personally identifies them. Google keeps records of IP addresses, which can be traced back to individual computers.
Poll respondents were more open to Google sharing information In cases where the government is trying to prosecute a crime. About 14 percent said that they were willing to give the government access in such cases, while 44 percent said that they were willing in only certain cases. The poll was conducted over the weekend by the Ponemon Institute, a privacy research group in Elk Rapids, Mich.
Google has been a fat data target since it started expanding its services into e-mail, driving directions, photo sharing, instant messaging and Web journals. I opened a Google Adsense account for this blog and got into a pissing match with Google because they refused to let me enter a P.O. address instead of a streeet address on the form. This is not smart idea for people who are targeted for aggregating personal data.
Google has not stated guidelines on how long it keeps data. Data storage is cheap –Google could keep it forever. The company says it won't release the information because it violates the privacy rights of its users and reveal company trade secrets.
