Interesting People mailing list archives
more on Editorial for IP: Fishing in Cyberspace (NY Times, 21 Jan 06)
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Mon, 23 Jan 2006 05:07:57 -0500
Begin forwarded message: From: "Lin, Herb" <HLin () nas edu> Date: January 23, 2006 1:08:47 AM EST To: dave () farber net, ip () v2 listbox comSubject: RE: [IP] Editorial for IP: Fishing in Cyberspace (NY Times, 21 Jan 06)
This editorial prompted in me the following question. The government's defense of the Children's Online Protection Act (COPA) is that it believes that COPA is a more effective method than filtering for preventing "harmful to minors" material from reaching minors. The courts have asked the government to test the effectiveness of filters, which suggests to me that the government has *not* done any of the requisite testing. That's why the government wants the data from the various search engines in the first place -- so that they can run those tests. My question - why is the government running those tests NOW? For them to have asserted the superiority of COPA over filters in protecting children, shouldn't they have run those tests BEFORE they made such an assertion? Conclusion first, data and experiment and tests later. Doesn't sound very reasonable to me... what am I missing? Herb Lin (views expressed are his own) -----Original Message----- From: David Farber [mailto:dave () farber net] Sent: Saturday, January 21, 2006 2:50 PM To: ip () v2 listbox com Subject: [IP] Editorial for IP: Fishing in Cyberspace (NY Times, 21 Jan 06) Begin forwarded message: From: GLIGOR1 () aol com Date: January 21, 2006 2:42:22 PM EST To: dave () farber net Subject: Editorial for IP: Fishing in Cyberspace (NY Times, 21 Jan 06) January 21, 2006 Editorial Fishing in Cyberspace Enough is never enough, not when the government believes that it can invade your privacy without repercussions. The Justice Department wants a federal judge to force Google to turn over millions of private Internet searches. Google is rightly fighting the demand, but the government says America Online, Yahoo and MSN, Microsoft's online service, have already complied with similar requests. This is not about national security. The Justice Department is making this baldfaced grab to try to prop up an online pornography law that has been blocked once by the Supreme Court. And it's not the first time we've seen this sort of behavior. The government has zealously protected the Patriot Act's power to examine library records. It sought the private medical histories of a selected group of women, saying it needed the information to defend the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act in the federal courts. The furor is still raging over President Bush's decision to permit spying on Americans without warrants. And the government now wants what could be billions of search terms entered into Google's Web pages and possibly a million Web-site addresses to go along with them. Protecting minors from the nastier material on the Internet is a valid goal; the courts have asked the government to test whether technologies for filtering out the bad stuff are effective. And the government hasn't asked for users' personal data this time around. What's frightening is that the Justice Department is trying once again to dredge up information first and answer questions later, if at all. Had Google not resisted the government's attempt to seize records, would the public have ever found about the request? The battle raises the question of how much of our personal information companies should be allowed to hold onto in the first place. Without much thought, Internet users have handed over vast quantities of private information to corporations. Many people don't realize that some innocuously named "cookies" in personal computers allow companies to track visits to various Web sites. Internet users permit their e-mail to be read by people and machines in ways they would never tolerate for their old-fashioned mail. And much of that information is now collected and stored by companies like Google. When pressed on privacy issues, Google - whose informal motto is "Don't be evil" - says it can be trusted with this information. But profiling consumers' behavior is potentially profitable for companies. And once catalogued, information can be abused by the government as well. Either way, the individual citizen loses. Copyright 2006The New York Times Company Home Privacy Policy Search Corrections XML Help Contact Us Work for Us Site Map Back to Top ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as hlin () nas edu To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/ ------------------------------------- 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/
Current thread:
- more on Editorial for IP: Fishing in Cyberspace (NY Times, 21 Jan 06) David Farber (Jan 21)
- <Possible follow-ups>
- more on Editorial for IP: Fishing in Cyberspace (NY Times, 21 Jan 06) David Farber (Jan 23)