Democracy - here we come

international | rights, freedoms and repression | opinion/analysis Friday January 20, 2006 11:50 by MichaelY - IAWM

Do as I do not as I say

With thanks to Michael Liedtke, AP Business Writer

As the Irish media has been focussing on some high profile overseas guests of ours like Noam Chomski and Naomi W (Tubridy had her this morning), I thought it would be useful to start a parallel debate here on another aspect of what goes on inside the usa - to look a bit deeper into the inner workings of that American brand of democracy that the Bush Admin is so keen to export overseas.

The Bush government wants a list all requests entered into Google's search engine during an unspecified single week -- a breakdown that could conceivably span tens of millions of queries. In addition, it seeks 1 million randomly selected Web addresses from various Google databases.

In court papers that the San Jose Mercury News reported on after seeing them Wednesday, Jan 18th, the Bush 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.

Yahoo, which runs the Internet's second-most used search engine behind Google, confirmed Thursday that it had complied with a similar government subpoena.

Although the government says it isn't seeking any data that ties personal information to search requests, the subpoena still raises serious privacy concerns. Those worries have been magnified by recent revelations that the White House authorized eavesdropping on civilian communications after the Sept. 11 attacks without obtaining court approval.

People use search engines so often these days that many of us contact Google, or Yahoo or MSN more often than we contact our children or our parents. The content of search request sometimes contain information about the person making the query. For instance, it's not unusual for search requests to include names, medical profiles or other personal info.

Microsoft Corp. MSN, the No. 3 search engine, declined to say whether it even received a similar subpoena. "MSN works closely with law enforcement officials worldwide to assist them when requested," the company said in a statement.

The Department of Justice argues that Google's cooperation is essential in its effort to simulate how people navigate the Web. Obtaining the subpoenaed information from Google "would assist the government in its efforts to understand the behaviour of current Web users, (and) to estimate how often Web users encounter harmful-to-minors material in the course of their searches," the Justice Department wrote in a brief filed Wednesday

Google -- whose motto when it went public in 2004 was "do no evil" -- contends that submitting to the subpoena would represent a betrayal to its users, even if all personal information is stripped from the search terms sought by the government. "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," company attorney Ashok Ramani wrote in a letter included in the government's filing. Complying with the subpoena also wound threaten to expose some of Google's "crown-jewel trade secrets," Ramani wrote. Google is particularly concerned that the information could be used to deduce the size of its index and how many computers it uses to crunch the requests. "This information would be highly valuable to competitors or miscreants seeking to harm Google's business," Ramani wrote.

I am hoping Google's battle with the government reminds people to be careful how they interact with search engines. 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.

I would really like to hear other peoples opinions on this issue which has an impact on all of us - not least on a forum like Indymedia.