Search Engine Records and Individual Privacy

This is more than a little unsettling: the Department of Justice is subpoeaning all the major search engines — and all have complied except Google — to get their hands on records of searches, ostensibly to hunt down pornography violations. However, as the Washington Post article notes, this may be opening the door to further government intrusion into individual privacy.

Right now the Department of Justice has asked for information without asking for specifics on who made the searches, but it is nevertheless cause for concern. Especially for bloggers and writers who use search engines to research a wide variety of topics which they may or may not have any connection to, other than that they are writing about it — the question needs to be asked: what use is it to the Department of Justice to know what people are doing searches about?

Thanks to Thoughts of An Average Woman again for her timely post on this.

3 thoughts on “Search Engine Records and Individual Privacy”

  1. There is so much wrong with the Department of Justice’s overzealous pursuit of search engine records that I hardly know where to begin. Perhaps I shall note some of the inherent ironies. First and foremost, while the Government purports to seek these records in an effort to protect this nation’s youth, the truth is that the Government continues to turn its back on the real threats to the safety and well-being of American children. For example, each day in this country…

    • 1,701 babies are born without health insurance
    • 2,447 babies are born into poverty
    • 2,482 children are confirmed as abused or neglected
    • 4,356 children are arrested

    I could go on, but I won’t. For more startling statistics, check out the following: http://www.childrensdefense.org/data/eachday.aspx

    Here’s another irony. While the Government more actively pursues and funds “data mining” activities, it simultaneously becomes more lax about and cuts funds to promote safety in the mining industry (see: http://www.davidsirota.com/2006/01/bush-ignored-explicit-warnings-in-2002.html). So not only does the Government fail to protect minors, but they also fail to protect miners.

    But, hey, at least we’re hunting down the pornographers, right? Except what’s truly obscene is how utterly skewed (to the right) the priorities of our purported leaders have become and how our most basic needs for safety and security are pushed ever increasingly to the margins. I imagine that George Orwell is nodding sagely in his grave.

  2. David, Thanks for this comment. You are adding new dimensions to this site every day and helping me — and whomever else is reading (and let’s hope it’s lots of very quiet people) to think about tough issues. I have to admit, I have been averting my gaze from the mining disaster, not able to think about how things might have been different. The Sirota link makes it all too clear.

  3. You’re very welcome, Kiersten. You are providing a valuable forum for those of us who like to think of ourselves as right-minded but not right-wing, fair-minded but not fair-weather, self-aware but not self-aggrandizing. Keep up the good work. I am honored to share a [web]page with you and to call you my friend.

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