Government v. Google: an argument for distributed publication?

Stuart Udell's preface to recent news about the US demand that Google turn over its search records speaks to the political risks of centralized databases--jon

----- Original Message -----
Friday, January 20, 2006 7:20:43 AM
Subject: <nettime> US gov demands Google search records

[The lesson here is simple. Anytime someone builds a database, they
are creating an object which is coveted by criminals/government. It
seems to me the best thing to do, from a developer/administrator
standpoint, is to avoid making them - and from a user's perspective,
avoid using big, popular, juicy databases... if you have to, then try
and be a dog named Joe who lives in Estonia at the time. Stand by
for a resurgence in interest in chained proxies. Waiting for an HTTP
proxy in some popular P2P clients, with crypto. See also:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4630694.stm - Stu]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/01/19/feds_subpoena_google_search_records/

US gov demands Google search records
Fishing expedition

By Andrew Orlowski in San Francisco
Published Thursday 19th January 2006 19:17 GMT

The US Department of Justice has taken Google to court, demanding it
hand over all searches made in a one week period. It's a fishing
expedition, unconnected with any ongoing criminal prosecution. The
DOJ wants the information to back up its attempt to revive an anti-
pornography law derailed by the Supreme Court two years ago....

---
Stuart Udall
http://www.cyberdelix.net/