http://tinyurl.com/zq7s9 (news.independent.co.uk)

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The Bush administration is embroiled in a courtroom showdown with the world's largest search engine company, demanding that Google hand over details of what internet users have been looking for.

Campaigners say the hearing represents a test case in the struggle between government intrusion and personal privacy. The Department of Justice (DOJ) has issued a subpoena to Google, demanding that it provide a vast cache of internet search information which it claims could be useful in a separate case about the threat of online pornography to children. It argues that it is not an invasion of privacy because it is not seeking personal information that could identify individual internet users.

But Google has refused, arguing that the request would violate the privacy of users and would also reveal business sensitive information about its search engine's operation. The company was yesterday seeking to have the DOJ's subpoena overturned in a court in San Jose, California.

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In January, when the subpoena was first revealed, Google's stock was shaken by the news. Yet the California-based company continues to refuse the government's request, despite the decision of its rivals Microsoft, AOL and Yahoo to provide such information following a similar demand.

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Shouldn't the subpoena in this case be more specific?

See that's the problem with wars on vague ideas. What would constitute a search for terrorist relavent material. Would a search for a train schedule constitute "intelligence" gathering. Trawling through millions of searches with no context is likely to just require an extremely large database of cross-referenced material, in order to gain any kind of "context". The question then becomes; what happens to this database, after the "terror" relavent information has been extracted? Will the rest of this data be purged? Or more likely who will see such a large database as a goldmine!
The potential then for great abuse exists in a very real sense, even more so because it is protected by large secret orginizations. We the people are then faced with having to trust the individuals involved to "do the right thing".
No good can come of this!

Perfect! Now, when they tap your computer and see searches for "Anthrax", they can arrest you. Or are you ashamed of the kiddy porn that you look for? Is that why you are against this?

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Originally posted by Fuzzball3000:
Perfect! Now, when they tap your computer and see searches for "Anthrax", they can arrest you. Or are you ashamed of the kiddy porn that you look for? Is that why you are against this?

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This is a personal attack upon a fellow totse member.

And it is insulting and libelous.

Shame on you FuzzBall.

You should apologize now.

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Originally posted by Hacker:
This is a personal attack upon a fellow totse member.

And it is insulting and libelous.

Shame on you FuzzBall.

You should apologize now.

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I will apologize if you stop using so many spaces in your posts. In other words, I will never apologize because I will never be called on this deal.

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Originally posted by Fuzzball3000:
Perfect! Now, when they tap your computer and see searches for "Anthrax", they can arrest you.

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What if you're just a biology or medical student?

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Originally posted by Shotties:
What if you're just a biology or medical student?

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Well, I know it's hard for you guys to give up any rights, but deal with it. Don't reaserch Anthrax; leave it the to guys in the military. So yes, I am asking biology teachers to give up an important right and not research Anthrax. I hope you guys can live without researching Anthrax during our war on terror.

pffft...we all know that when Bush gets the list of Google searches, they're gonna be like "Britney Spears pics", "Jissica Simpson naked" and so forth.

If you connected into someone elses wireless connection couldent you just search on their connection and fuck them over? I think even iff they see what IP the search is coming from there is still no proof that the person who's Ip it is is the one who searched. I will ban google if this happens

quote:

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Originally posted by Fuzzball3000:
Well, I know it's hard for you guys to give up any rights, but deal with it. Don't reaserch Anthrax; leave it the to guys in the military. So yes, I am asking biology teachers to give up an important right and not research Anthrax. I hope you guys can live without researching Anthrax during our war on terror.

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Are you a troll?

Assuming you're not, why do you think searches would be limited to diseases? Which, by the way, aren't always as a result of a terrorist attack. What about people researching fertiliser for their garden?

It's not the point that what may bring people under scrutiny may be important or far reaching, it's the point that it may be done at all.

Question: would you allow the government to install cameras in every room of your house to protect you from burglers?

Yeah, I think you get away with it through a wireless network. Or better yet-a public computer.

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Originally posted by Dirty DeeD:
If you connected into someone elses wireless connection couldent you just search on their connection and fuck them over? I think even iff they see what IP the search is coming from there is still no proof that the person who's Ip it is is the one who searched. I will ban google if this happens

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Also, you have to wonder how successful a terrorist attack would be if those researching and planning it didn't even have the common sense to use a proxy chain when searching the internet.