U.S. govt sues Google for your porn queries

The Justice Department is suing Google after it refused to turn over “all Google queries for a week and for 1 million Internet addresses.” No warrant or reasonable cause was needed – this is for the state’s “research” needs. MSN, Yahoo, and AOL already capitulated without a fight. If there was ever a cause for a fight over due process, it’s this, not the anti-terrorism BS.

Incidentaly, Google permanently records all my search queries as part of my Google account, which includes a year of Gmail emails, my address book, and credit card info for my ad accounts. To hell with phone calls and letters – if there are any secrets about me, my Google accounts hold them. If this is up for grabs without a warrant, what isn’t?


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4 responses to “U.S. govt sues Google for your porn queries”

  1. adron Avatar

    This I have to agree is even worse than most of the Patriot Act stuff. It’s just digusting. This is by far one of the most unsettling things.

    If they do manage to get this what in hell are they going to do then? Arrest even MORE of the population for “thinking” wrong?!

    The tree of liberty is needing a good pruning!

  2. softwareNerd Avatar

    There’s an update to this story here (link).
    Mainly, two new facts:

    * the government request was not for data that could be traced back to individual users; more like a research request that could answer: how much porn shows up when someone searches Google
    * while Google refused, AOL and MSN gave the government what it asked for

  3. softwareNerd Avatar

    David, A typo in the title to the “Intellectual’s Prayer”
    It should say “recite” instead of “resite”.

  4. Filtering technology vs. the DOJ…

    As you might be aware, the government passed a law in 1998 banning porn on the net on the theory that porn filters don’t work. Despite being overturned by the Supreme Court in 2004, the DOJ is trying to resurrect that law (see recent attempt to spy on…

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