Bush, Google and Privacy Sig Heil! Sig Heil!

[SC]

Jan. 19, 2006 - SAN JOSE, Calif. - The Bush administration, seeking to revive an online pornography law struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court, has subpoenaed Google Inc. for details on what its users have been looking for through its popular search engine.

Google has refused to comply with the subpoena, issued last year, for a broad range of material from its databases, including a request for 1 million random Web addresses and records of all Google searches from any one-week period, lawyers for the U.S. Justice Department said in papers filed Wednesday in federal court in San Jose.

Privacy advocates have been increasingly scrutinizing Google's practices as the company expands its offerings to include e-mail, driving directions, photo-sharing, instant messaging and Web journals.

Although Google pledges to protect personal information, the company's privacy policy says it complies with legal and government requests. Google also has no stated guidelines on how long it keeps data, leading critics to warn that retention is potentially forever given cheap storage costs.

The government contends it needs the data to determine how often pornography shows up in online searches as part of an effort to revive an Internet child protection law that was struck down two years ago by the U.S. Supreme Court on free-speech grounds.

The 1998 Child Online Protection Act would have required adults to use access codes or other ways of registering before they could see objectionable material online, and it would have punished violators with fines up to $50,000 or jail time. The high court ruled that technology such as filtering software may better protect children.

The matter is now before a federal court in Pennsylvania, and the government wants the Google data to help argue that the law is more effective than software in protecting children from porn.

The Mountain View-based company told The San Jose Mercury News that it opposes releasing the information because it would violate the privacy rights of its users and would reveal company trade secrets.

Nicole Wong, an associate general counsel for Google, said the company will fight the government's efforts "vigorously."

"Google is not a party to this lawsuit, and the demand for the information is overreaching," Wong said.

[Bush Is a Prick]

Here's something the fed's can Google.

Sexbushsucksdicksexbuschisawimpsexbushisatraitorsexbushlikescocksexbushisalosersexbushcaneatshitsexbushdontgetnonesexbushisgaysexbushlikesituptheasssexbushisgaysexbusheatsshitsexbushliessexbushisacokeheadsexbushandsexdontgotogethersexpresidentbushsexbushsucksdicksexbuschisawimpsex.

Bushisatraitorsexbushlikescocksexbushisalosersexbushcaneatshitsexbushdontgetnonesexbushisgaysexbushlikesituptheasssexbushisgaysexbusheatsshitsexbushliessexbushisacokeheadsexbushandsexdontgotogethersex.

[Scout]

Do a Google search for a President Bush site.

SEARCHES...


"MY PET GOAT"

"GOATS AT PLAY"

"JEFF GANNON NUDE"

"CHENEY NUDE"

"FOXNEWS SPIN STORIES OF THE DAY & BUSH"

"IRAQ & HALLIBURTON"

"HOW TO SPIN WAR FAILURE 101"

"HOW TO SPIN SOCIAL SECURITY REFORM FAILURE 101"

"MICHAEL MOORE & BUSH"

"COLLEGE MALE CHEERLEADERS & BUSH"

"HOW TO DEFLECT ATTENTION AWAY FROM YOUR CORRUPT IMMORAL PARTY 101"

[WaTcHeR]

Was Caesar This Paranoid?

[KC]

At first glance it is hard to understand why the US Government's Justice Department wants Google to hand over a week's worth of search data.

To begin with, this would be a huge amount of information to paw through. In an average week, Google handles between 500 million and a billion searches.

While this is far less than the US government's request for 60 days worth of data, it is likely to produce a huge file tens, if not hundreds, of gigabytes in size.

At the same time, the US government wants a random sample of one million websites that people have searched for.

One of Google's defences against the Justice Department request is that it already has data from other search firms such as Yahoo, AOL and MSN.

However, government lawyers argue that the way Google ranks and classifies the data it returns to searchers will prove particularly useful for its purposes.

Essentially it wants data from search engines to prove how easy it is to stumble over porn on the net. If it can prove this the result might be onerous regulation for many websites.

In court documents the US government said it had tried to generate the same information using the Internet Archive website but did not get the results it wanted.

Dangerous game

It is well known that net service firms and search engines do hand over records to law enforcement agencies who need the data for ongoing criminal investigations.

In many cases data found in computer memory caches or searches people have done online have been used in successful prosecutions.

But in the UK and US there are laws in place that limit how much and what types of information can be requested. So-called "fishing expeditions" in which police forces or intelligence works request data and look through it for people that have committed crimes are outlawed.

Danny Sullivan, net consultant and founder of Search Engine Watch, said the request Google is fighting was not tied to any criminal investigation by law enforcement organisations.

"This is a weird one and is not something that has come up before," he told the BBC News website.

He said the fear was that the US Government wanted to set a precedent with this request so it can turn to search firms whenever they want, for whatever data is deemed important.

Certainly, he said, the data being requested is innocuous and has little in it that could tie it to individuals.

But, said Mr Sullivan, because the potential is there to link people with searches for particular terms, such as bomb making materials, the worry is that governments will use the data to monitor and spy on civilians.

Increasingly, he said, search firms were working to personalise their service and it is possible to tie some searches to particular users or machines.

Information online

It is clear that the more that people do via the net, the greater the chance to keep an eye on them. And it is not just data from Google that can be useful.

In early January talented hacker Tom Owad showed what could be done with Amazon's wish list to uncover "subversives".

Mr Owad downloaded the five gigabytes of raw data that makes up the wishlists of the 260,000 Amazon customers that share a common male name.

Writing about his work, Mr Owad said it would be easy to use this data to find out which people are looking for banned books or works considered to be dangerous.

Writing about the row, net analyst John Battelle said net users were only just beginning to come to terms with the trust they transfer to firms such as Google, Yahoo and others to properly safeguard often deeply personal information.

"And I'm not sure either we or they are entirely sure what to do with the implications of such a transfer," he wrote. "Just thinking about these implications makes a reasonable person's head hurt."

[KC]

Google's Larry Page Comments on Privacy Matters

Along with Danny making an appearance of ABC News Nightline tonight, ABC's World News Tonight offered a look at the company a little while ago. A text version of the story is here. We learn about the corporate culture, etc. but we also here from Larry Page on privacy issues.

From Larry Page:
"Our company relies on having the trust of our users and using that information for that benefit," said Page. "That's a very strong motivation for us. We're committed to that. If you start to mandate how products are designed, I think that's a really bad path to follow. I think instead we should have laws that protect the privacy of data, for example, from government requests and other kinds of requests."

John Battelle is also quoted in the story. He says:


"I think people are both fascinated and terrified, frankly," said John Battelle, author of "The Search."

[KC]

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Jan. 20, 2006 — Google Inc., known for its online search engine, is the fastest-growing company in the United States. Its name has become a verb, and its stock trades at more than $400 a share.

Google is quickly moving well beyond search.

Its Earth satellite mapping provides 3-D digital models of the entire world. After Hurricane Katrina, emergency responders used it to orient themselves for rescues.

The company offers the e-mail service Gmail and Google Video, in which users can purchase television shows and homemade movies.

Through all of this, Google is collecting a massive database of personal information.

The Bush administration wants to know how often computer users search for pornography on the Web — specifically, how many times Google users look for the sites. It says it needs the data to futher its efforts to keep pornography out of the hands of children.

Larry Page and Sergey Brin — the 30-something multibillionaires who founded Google — resisted the request today, saying it was not necessary and raised serious privacy concerns.

"Our company relies on having the trust of our users and using that information for that benefit," said Page. "That's a very strong motivation for us. We're committed to that. If you start to mandate how products are designed, I think that's a really bad path to follow. I think instead we should have laws that protect the privacy of data, for example, from government requests and other kinds of requests."

The Child Online Protection Act, which carries criminal penalties for online pornographers, was passed in 1998. But the Supreme Court stopped it from being enforced and ordered a lower court to determine whether filtering software could protect kids from the Web sites without violating adult free speech.

According to the Justice Department, America Online, Yahoo and MSN have all handed over their search data. But Google is holding out.

"I think people are both fascinated and terrified, frankly," said John Battelle, author of "The Search."

"This wonderful, cuddly California startup with this warm and friendly 'Don't be evil' motto — we realize that if Google lives up to the potential that we've created for it, that might be a company that is extraordinarily powerful."

About the company's motto, Page said, "The idea is just thinking about what we're doing all the time and make sure that we're doing good basically."

Google's Corporate Culture

Brin and Page share an office space not much bigger than a walk-in closet. The 3,000 employees who work at company's headquarters appear very happy.

About 1,000 have become millionaires, and sometimes it's hard to tell when they are working.

"I love working at Google," Camille Hart said. "It's the next best thing to not working at all."

"I feel like this is a little part of home for me," Corin Anderson said.

The campus, as they call it, has everything workers need or could ever want — free massages, free use of a gym, free snacks, free laundry service and a barber shop.

"We try to provide a really comfortable environment here, and also we make it playful to create creativity," said Brin. "We think we get better products out of it by letting our people be more creative."

Doug Banks, a Google software engineer, even enjoys a game of volleyball during work.

"Get to work at 9:30, see if anyone wants to play volleyball, come out here at 10:30 — in between do some work," he said.

Google also offers three square meals a day — for free.

"Breakfast, lunch and dinner every day," said Google chef Robert Morgan. "It seems like the better we feed them, the more creative they are."

[Dave]

As Bush is fond of telling us, as he defends ordering domestic spying, his job is to protect America.
So why does he not defend America from Armed Mexican Army incursions into our country?

Seems like one of those 'High Crimes and Misdemeanors' to me. Everyone in the Executive Branch, including Bush, are well aware of these armed incursions, including one in which 16 Armed Mexican Soldiers were actually arrested and jailed by the Border Patrol, only to be told by the State Dept to release them, WITH their weapons. Now if not of at least 216 occasions when this has happened, how many times has it happened unnoticed? Now we find out that a very elaborate tunnel was being used to smuggle dope, illegal's, and who knows what else? And this is the 21st tunnel found in the last couple of years.

Is this what BUSH CALLS PROTECTING AMERICA? He has been sworn to uphold the laws of this country yet he steadfastly IGNORES this kind of crap! Just add it to the list of other reasons why this LIAR should be IMPEACHED.

[WaTcHeR]

Judge denies demand for Google search information

03/18/2006 - SAN FRANCISCO - A federal judge on Friday ordered Google Inc. to give the Bush administration a peek inside its search engine, but rebuffed the government's demand for a list of people's search requests - potentially sensitive information that the company had fought to protect.

In his ruling, U.S. District Judge James Ware told Google to provide the U.S. Justice Department with the addresses of 50,000 randomly selected Web sites indexed by its search engine by April 3.

The government plans to use the data for a study in another case in Pennsylvania, where the Bush administration is trying to revive a law meant to shield children from online pornography.