If you value privacy online, your eyes might become “googled” at this bit of information: The federal government has subpoenaed Google’s search records, requesting access to records of all Google searches from an unspecified one-week period and 1 million random Web addresses.
Why? To determine how often searchers discover pornography.
Although Google rebuffed the charges, this is sure to evolve into a lengthy legal battle over
Internet law. As Web users, we find this move by our government, as well as the amount of data collected by Google, to be highly alarming.
The government issued the subpoena last summer, but Google refused to turn over the records, so U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales asked a federal judge in San Jose, Calif., to order the company to comply. The records “would assist the government in its efforts to understand the behavior of current Web users, (and) to estimate how often Web users encounter harmful-to-minors material in the course of their searches,” the Justice Department wrote Wednesday, according to The Associated Press.
Information requested by the subpoena is relatively innocent. Yet the subpoena indicates the potential for use of Google and other search engines as government surveillance tools.
The government has reportedly not asked for personal information that would tie users to searches. But because Google uses robust algorithms to gather information and tailor search results and advertising to each user’s tastes, it could conceivably have such information on its servers. If it complies with this request, federal investigators may try to use Google to pursue other issues.
The warrantless wiretapping snafu demonstrates the Bush administration’s willingness to use legally questionable means to monitor U.S. citizens in the name of the “War on Terror.” Alarmingly, this process of subpoenaing search engines could be expanded, either in the courts or secretly, to include other subjects.
This case is the latest in the government’s battle to thwart online pornography. Although pornography generally demeans its participants and can have psychologically harmful effects on viewers, especially children, adult citizens should have the choice to view this material. We also value our rights to privacy and free speech online – rights the Supreme Court has already upheld.
In 1997, the Supreme Court upheld a lower court’s ruling that the Communications Decency Act – which attempted to regulate children’s access to sexually explicit material – was unconstitutional, in part because it didn’t allow parents to decide what to allow their children to view.
In 1998, Congress passed the Child Online Protection Act – a law that required commercial distributors of material “harmful” to minors to prevent kids from viewing it. The Supreme Court in 2004 upheld a lower court’s ruling that the law violated protected speech among adults, finding that Web filtering is a more effective way to block a child’s access to porn.
Blocking software on local computers or at the ISP level effectively screens Web material, but the current administration would rather use invasive methods to combat pornography.
We urge Google to continue fighting the subpoena and any future incursions into users’ privacy.