more on Subpoena for 1 million random web searches

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren () vortex com>
Date: January 20, 2006 11:05:17 PM EST
To: Seth Finkelstein <sethf () sethf com>
Cc: David Farber <dave () farber net>, Dana Blankenhorn <dana@a- 
clue.com>, Lauren Weinstein <lauren () vortex com>, Jim McCoy <mccoy@mad- 
scientist.com>
Subject: Re: [IP] more on Subpoena for 1 million random web searches


Seth,

I don't have the time right now to write up my thoughts
appropriately to address this in detail, so just a couple of notes
for the moment.

The particulars of the government demands in this case are obviously
somewhat arbitrary since they were subject to significant negotiation
-- which suggests that the next time around the demands on search
engines are likely to also be significantly arbitrary, but perhaps
not subject to as much negotiation.  In other words, the government
is applying its usual "it's my ball and my game" approach -- even
though in this case it's not even a criminal investigation.  We of
course don't know the extent to which search engines are subjected
so data orders related to criminal cases, or for that matter
national security letters under PATRIOT.

But viewed purely on its own merits, this case has all the look and
smell of the camel's nose under the tent.

Also, my reading of Gonzales v. Google, Inc. on FindLaw (and the
FindLaw commentary) indicate that the government also ordered Google
to supply "the text of *each search string* over a one-week period
(absent any information identifying the person who entered such
query)". [emphasis added] This suggests that the source IP address
and perhaps any cookies could be filtered out, but that section
doesn't seem to say anything to permit the removal of sensitive or
personal information from within the bodies of the query strings
themselves.  In any case, a full week of search strings is far
different from a random sampling by any reasonable definition that
I'm familiar with.

--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
lauren () vortex com or lauren () pfir org
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
http://www.pfir.org/lauren
Co-Founder, PFIR
   - People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org
Co-Founder, IOIC
   - International Open Internet Coalition - http://www.ioic.net
Moderator, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com
Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
DayThink: http://daythink.vortex.com


-------------------------------------
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/