As the government implements it's new declared power to enter into the
private lives of everyday Americans in almost every form, Google fights a
lone battle against the government. The government contends that the
information sought is to prove children access pornography in spite of site
and software controls.

The matter revolves around the supposed need by the government to access
the search engine data bases for information to investigate and/or prosecute
supposed porno sites and users. Supposedly, the government can't do as any
internet user could do, and search for these sites on it's own. It appears,
however, the government actually wants the user's addresses rather than the
sites.
For seven months Google has attempted to thwart this intrusion into it's
privately own data base.

U.S. District Judge James Ware (sitting judge on the case) prepares to
issue orders to Google for random government access to Google's data base of
search requests.
This judge should be extremely careful in the wording of this Order.
Inroads into the privacy of onliners, claimed for the most part by
government as non-existent, should be the highest concern.

Gidari (one of Google's attorneys) said the content of certain queries
often contains sensitive information about finances, Social Security numbers
and sexual preferences. That would, of course, be true for adults which may
pay for access to certain sites. If they are adults then what they access
should be the concern, not the user.

The judge asked whether Google wished to turn over site addresses or search
requests, as if either would not, in some form, give the government
information which it could not obtain on it's own.

All the other major search engines have already turned over some of the
information sought by the government, though they claim they have not
compromised their users security.

Here we find one more piece of the"train of circumstances" in this on going
change in America, from the land of the free, to the land of the monitored
and controlled.

- posted by Maurice @ Wednesday, March 15, 2006