NYT: "Internet Users Thinking Twice Before a Search"

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Steven <stevenstevensteven () yahoo com>
Date: January 24, 2006 11:11:01 PM EST
To: dave () farber net
Subject: NYT: "Internet Users Thinking Twice Before a Search"

Excerpt from NYT story:  "But the government's move is one of several  
recent
episodes that have caused some people to think twice about the  
information
they type into a search engine, or the opinions they express in an e- 
mail
message."

What was it Thomas Paine said.....

"When the people fear the government, you have tyranny. When the  
government
fears the people, you have freedom."

--------------

NYTimes.com
January 25, 2006
Internet Users Thinking Twice Before a Search
By KATIE HAFNER

Kathryn Hanson, a former telecommunications engineer who lives in  
Oakland,
Calif., was looking at BBC News online last week when she came across an
item about a British politician who had resigned over a reported  
affair with
a "rent boy."

It was the first time Ms. Hanson had seen the term, so, in search of a
definition, she typed it into Google. As Ms. Hanson scrolled through the
results, she saw that several of the sites were available only to people
over 18. She suddenly had a frightening thought. Would Google have to  
inform
the government that she was looking for a rent boy - a young male
prostitute?

Ms. Hanson, 45, immediately told her boyfriend what she had done. "I  
told
him I'd Googled 'rent boy,' just in case I got whisked off to some Navy
prison in the dead of night," she said.

Ms. Hanson's reaction arose from last week's reports that as part of its
effort to uphold an online pornography law, the Justice Department  
had asked
a federal judge to compel Google to turn over records on millions of its
users' search queries. Google is resisting the request, but three of its
competitors - Yahoo, MSN and America Online - have turned over similar
information.

[snip]

The full story can be found at:
http://tinyurl.com/dgy9k



Steven Hertzberg



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