Google to feds: Back off

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Problem is not Google

I actually missed this point of view for Google's reasoning. But it seems to be just an undisputable shortcut for rejection.

Google is a publicly traded company which is under fire of US MPs crying out human rights. Google has submitted to Chinese Government's demands, because there is a big market to loose in failing to comply with such an important authority (over a huge number of potential customers). The US MPs who cry outrage over this should get wiser. However sad the practice has been, you do not have the right to overrule a local autority, not even on Internet. You do not own it.

Now comes the hypocritic part: they oppose the decision to cencor, yet they see it fit to ask for search results... Irrelevant? Not very...

Some governments are well known to have strong international politics without regard to their economic well-being. Partly this is composed of smart playing. They always leave the sharp end of the spear facing the other one, whereby cleverly masquarading as the ever vigilant and rightful protector.

The demand of the US government falls short of making us convince about the purported purpose the sampled data that is going to be used for. If you are going to hunt down child abusers, you could do better than asking for a general snaphot.

Why don't they just say bluntly that they want a bigger foothold on Internet for their National Security? Because it will make them the equal of the Chinese government. The Chinese just block content for local users; and it is unknown whether they also track the individuals making queries. The US however, wants to see the trend for the whole world.... Nothing less wold be acceptable for US national security.

We use Google but do not question how it makes profits, or how it secures its business, provided they are not in conflict with laws and ethics. Censoring Chinese domain is very minor, as opposed to the search result demand scandal (to be).

Us authorities may have a hard time consituting required laws to legally bind Google to cough up "child pornography" related search data. It seems tapping the phone lines is not enough. The US government is bigger than its citizens.

Posted by: aetherjoy   Posted on: 02/17/06 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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