(Inaugural) Pro-Google Tirade

[This post was originally made on my personal blog 1.0 on 2 March 2006, but I thought it important enough to reiterate in a more appropriate forum.]

I have spoken to many people about this, so scroll down if you've already heard it. I just wanted to take this time/space publicly espouse my support for Google above all other internet search engines, and most other American companies in general.

My interest in Google began after reading their user privacy statement when signing up for a (free) gmail account. For those of you who are not familiar with this document, it is a legally binding agreement into which you enter when you signup for any online service (and many offline programs) that requires their acquisition of private and/or personal information. In this, the age of Information, this should be of concern to everyone (especially American citizens, since the advent of the Patriot Act). Most people merely click "Yes I agree" blindly and almost ritualistically to avoid the hassle and 'wasted time' of reading the long and drawn-out statement. Still more people draw the false assumption that everyone's statement is essentially the same. THIS IS DANGEROUSLY WRONG!!!

Many of you may be familiar with the website "MySpace" which, similar to this blog service provided by Google, allows users to post information and pictures about themselves and/or their friends on public www space. While I applaud this company for their free offering of this service to internet users, and respect the massive amount of users they have acquired, I am deeply disappointed by the lack of protection afforded by their privacy statement. One section of their statement, dictating the conditions under which they will release your information, states that they will respond to "any warrants, legal or otherwise" by giving up your personal information. Google's statement, however, states they will respond to any "legal warrants, or where otherwise required by law". Subtle difference, perhaps; but I think my lawyer friends would agree (are you reading this Ann? Grant?) that it could make all the difference...

Google has further capitalized on my tendency to support them by their wholly unique response to the requests of the federal Justice Department. I have listed some links to reputable news articles about this issue below, but here is an amateur summary of how I understand what's going on:

The DOJ wants to revive interest in a bill to more stringently protect people from illegal content involving child pornography. While this is a noble effort, to do so they have requested random search query information from all the major internet search engines. While this information may not include personal user information (as described above), it may or may not include identifiable information (such as IP address). Most importantly from Google's perspective, it would send a message to internet users: Watch out for how you use our service, because any searches you make may become property of the US Government.

MSN, AOL, and Yahoo! submitted the information requested of them by the DOJ almost immediately and without question or reservation. Google has entered into a legal battle with the federal government (some sources are quoted as saying the DOJ is suing Google) over this issue, and has the support of the American Civil Liberties Union (the ACLU), a bastion of protectors of human and personal privacy rights in this country. As a result of these latest developments, I have personally opted to minimize my use of any products of MSN, AOL, and Yahoo!, and I strongly urge you to do the same. In such a large capitalist society as the United States, our voices as individuals may not always be heard, but our strength as consumers will always win out.

LINKS:
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=internetNews&storyID=2006-02-18T002325Z_01_N17192366_RTRUKOC_0_US-GOOGLE-PRIVACY.xml
http://www.chicagotribune.com/technology/sns-ap-google-justice,1,6453910.story?coll=chi-business-hed

Blogs:
http://www.networkingpipeline.com/blog/archives/2006/02/feds_google_req.html