Re: [interarchive] Government v. Google?

Actually, my point was less about the need to support Google than the fact that their central database made them vulnerable, whereas a distributed system (such as a peer-to-peer publishing network) is harder to mine for private info, whether by
spammers or the government. Consider for example the Electronic Frontier Foundation's reaction:

'While EFF applauds Google for defending its users' privacy in this case, the current controversy only highlights the broader privacy problem: Google logs all of the searches you make, and most if not all of those queries are personally identifiable
via cookies, IP addresses, and Google account information.

'"The only way Google can reasonably protect the privacy of its users from such legal demands now and in the future is to stop collecting so much information about its users, delete information that it does collect as soon as possible, and take real
steps to minimize how much of the information it collects is traceable back to individual Google users," said EFF Staff Attorney Kevin Bankston. "If Google continues to gather and keep so much information about its users, government and private
attorneys will continue to try and get it."

'Importantly, users can also take steps to protect their privacy from Google, the government, and others, by using anonymizing technologies such as Tor when surfing the web. Tor helps hide your IP address from Google so that even if the lawyers come
knocking, Google cannot identify you by your searches.'

http://www.eff.org/news/archives/2006_01.php

More about Tor:
http://tor.eff.org/

That said, Google does deserve support for this (somewhat uncharacteristic) concern about privacy, especially given that Yahoo (and probably MSN) caved and didn't tell anyone:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1561793/posts

One unscientific poll suggests overwhelming support for Google's stance among the public:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10947488/

You can go ahead and contribute to that poll, or better yet, if you're American, contact your local senators and representatives to affirm your support for the basic freedoms that the Bush administration is trying to undermine. I'm calling mine
tomorrow.

jon

interarchive@lists.berkeley.edu on Monday, January 23, 2006 at 4:35 PM -0500 wrote:
>
>Genco Gulan wrote:
>>
>> Dear Jon, Is there a way to support google and our rights?