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more on I strongly afree with this djf Google search and seizure
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Sat, 3 Dec 2005 15:33:14 -0500
Begin forwarded message: From: Lee Tien <tien () eff org> Date: December 3, 2005 2:48:00 PM EST To: dave () farber netSubject: Re: [IP] I strongly afree with this djf Google search and seizure
For IP if you wish.Libraries have long sought to protect circulation records out of concern for both privacy and freedom to read. Libraries and the American Library Association have been openly fighting government orders for their records. See http://www.komotv.com/news/story.asp?ID=33363 ("Small Town Library Takes On The Feds") and http://www.ctlibrarians.org/news/patriotact.html (discussing Connecticut library NSL case)
Indeed, some libraries have instituted records purging policies to protect against government subpoenas. http://www.infoshop.org/alibrarians/public_html/article.php? story=03/08/01/5059833
http://www.fhsu.edu/forsyth_lib/copyright/PatriotActFAQs.shtml("While there are some service benefits to keeping detailed records, the risks of compromising your privacy outweigh these benefits. Therefore, we are planning to purge all patron records with your personally identifiable information on them once the materials are returned and the fines are paid.")
What about search engines?The data retention issue is only getting worse from a privacy standpoint; the EU is moving toward mandatory telecom traffic data retention. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/12/02/ap/world/ mainD8E8BKK00.shtml
BRUSSELS, Belgium, Dec. 2, 2005(AP) European justice and interior ministers agreed Friday on plans binding telecommunications companies to retain records of phone call and e-mails for a minimum of six months for use in investigations into terrorism and other serious crimes.
For more on EU data retention, see http://www.statewatch.org/eu-data- retention.htm
Lee At 1:47 PM -0500 12/3/05, David Farber wrote:
Begin forwarded message: From: "Richard M. Smith" <rms () computerbytesman com> Date: December 3, 2005 8:57:59 AM EST To: EPIC_IDOF () mailman epic org Subject: [EPIC_IDOF] Google search and seizurehttp://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/ 2005/12/03/google_search_and_seizure?mode=PF Google search and seizure By Robert Kuttner | December 3, 2005 The Boston Globe THE NEW York Times recently reported that in a North Carolinastrangulation-murder trial, prosecutors introduced as evidence the fact that the defendant's Google searches had included the words ''neck" and ''snap."The Times noted that the evidence had come from the defendant's home computer, but could just as easily have come from Google.Google's whole business-model includes keeping track of users' searches by putting ''cookies" (tracking devices) on users' own computers, and then using the results to customize ad offerings that pop up when we use theiringenious free search service.In the era of the misnamed USA Patriot Act, which allows warrantless police searches that are not even disclosed to the target, Google plus Dick Cheney is a recipe for undoing the liberties for which the original patriots of the American Revolution bled and died. Under the Patriot Act, anyone suspectedof enabling terrorism can be subjected to these fishing expeditions. Depending on a prosecutor's whims, that includes all of us.In the 18th-century era of star-chamber courts and despotic monarchs, the USConstitution put an end to government as prosecutor, judge, and jury.Unreasonable searches and seizures were explicitly prohibited by the Sixth Amendment. People (not just citizens) were guaranteed the right to confronttheir accusers and to know the charges against them. There were no ''national security" loopholes. Google's internal slogan is, charmingly, ''Don't be evil." Well, theinteraction of cyber-snooping and the unreasonable searches authorized bythe Patriot Act is pure evil.Herewith an idea that I am putting into the public domain, which could makesome computer-whiz a billionaire: One of Google's competitors could guarantee users of its search engines that all data keeping track ofsearches will be permanently discarded after 24 hours. The search process could still learn a broad pattern of users' purchasing tastes, if we wish to be party to a bargain of being marketed to in exchange for the convenienceof free searches.The same libertarian computer entrepreneur could offer e-mail software, in which old messages are permanently erased unless the user deliberately optsto retain them.Google, like Microsoft and IBM before it, may be the current market leader in whiz-bang technology based on sheer inventive genius. But if Google isnot careful, some competitor with a genuine regard for privacy could displace it.We all grew up vaguely knowing that 20th century technology, under fairly narrow circumstances, could invade privacy. The phone company kept track ofeveryone's calling records. These could be subpoenaed. Prosecutors and detectives, with warrants approved by judges, could deploy telephonewiretaps. There were occasional abuses, as in the witch hunts of the 1950s, but for the most part these technological invasions of privacy were used against bad guys, not for broad fishing expeditions. And there was no e-mailand no Google. Today, however, the explosion of computer technology coupled with thediscarding of prosecutorial restraints is leading to a Big-Brother society.Unless we pay attention, the technology is so seductive that we become enablers of our own enslavement. The universal information that is so empowering could be enslaving inanother respect. Check out a little satire available on the Internet titledEPIC 2014. It is a short, dystopian picture of the next 10 years.EPIC stands for the Evolving Personalized Information Construct. In thisgrim view of the near future, Google merges with Amazon and becomes ''Google-zon," the ultimate information market monopoly.By 2014, the press as we know it no longer exists. Google-zon usurps the press's advertising base by ultra-customizing all ads. There is no longer the traditional craft of reporter or editor. Newspapers go out of businessor become small niche products.''Everyone contributes now -- from blog entries to phone-cam images, to video reports, to full investigations," the video says. Everyone is a newsproducer as well as a news consumer, and it's almost impossible todifferentiate journalism from junk. Computers strip and splice items, based on each user's past interests, pattern of use, and declared preferences. News is prioritized according to how many users read each item. Ads aresimilarly customized. We are universally connected, but universallyfragmented and universally vulnerable to misinformation and government andcommercial snooping. The marketplace may solve this dilemma by offering privacy-sensitiveproducts, but entrepreneurs may also make the problem worse. The momentcries out for political as well as commercial leadership.Correction: Last week's column referred to Warren Tolman. It should havebeen Steven Tolman. Robert Kuttner, co-editor of The American Prospect, can be reached at kuttner () prospect org. His column appears regularly in the Globe. _______________________________________________ EPIC_IDOF mailing list EPIC_IDOF () mailman epic org https://mailman.epic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/epic_idof ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as tien () well sf ca us To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ipArchives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting- people/
-- **********************************... it is poor civic hygiene to install technologies that could someday facilitate a police state. -- Bruce Schneier
Lee Tien Senior Staff Attorney Electronic Frontier Foundation 454 Shotwell Street San Francisco, CA 94110 (415) 436-9333 x 102 (tel) (415) 436-9993 (fax) tien () eff org ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as lists-ip () insecure org To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/
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