more on Privacy tip: be wary of Google's "personal history" feature [priv]

["Dave Farber" <dave () farber net>]

------- Original message -------
From: Steven M. Bellovin <smb () cs columbia edu>
Sent: 28/4/'05,  7:58

In message <BE963F70.31465%dave () farber net>, David Farber writes:

> And just for an oldie but a goodie, let's remember that for those of us
> living in the USA, the Federal government can request and search your
> travel, phone, financial, and medical records, in addition to any
> records maintained by libraries, religious institutions, retailers
> (think Amazon, bookstores, video rental stores) without having to
> disclose anything to you.

It strikes me as likely that the government can obtain your search 
records from Amazon without even a minimal court order.  Note the 
following item in Google's privacy policy:

? We conclude that we are required by law or have a good
? faith belief that access, preservation or disclosure of
? such information is reasonably necessary to protect the
? rights, property or safety of Google, its users or the
? public.

It's pretty hard to avoid the conclusion that they're allowed to
comply with a simple FBI request:  "we think that your user so-and-so
is an evil terrorist; can we have his search and email records?"
Sure sounds like a public safety issue, right?  Or how about
"we think that so-and-so is an evil file-sharer; can we have records
of all of her searches for 'mp3' or 'kazaa'?" from the RIAA?
That sounds like a property issue.  But we can go a step further.
Google is really good at finding information matches; what if they
themselves develop a search profile that "identifies" a terrorist,
a file sharer, or what have you?

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