I can't be the only person who finds Google's agreement to censor searches on Google.China, at odds with this (from New Scientist):
Need information? Where better to turn than Google? Or so the US Department of Justice thought when it asked Google to hand over the records of a week's worth of online searches.So Google will censor on behalf of an oppressive regime, but it won't help the American authorities catch paedophiles?
The department wants the data to help demonstrate the need for the Child Online Protection Act by showing how easily children can stumble on pornography sites. It argues that it needs the data to understand web user behaviour.
Google refused, so the justice department last week asked a federal court to force it to hand over details of web addresses and stored search terms. Google says it will fight the subpoena. But Lee Tien, an attorney for the San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation, says: "If you don't want to get subpoenas for other people's data, then don't hang onto it
Still at least a Chinese user can search for horrid things to do with children and feel secure.
Or have I missed something?
Go on, press my button and make a Timely Observation.
7 comments:
I'm slightly ashamed that it took a long article in the Guardian this week to make me realise all the things you can *do* with Google.
Am now slightly scared of it (and my Blogger account, my Gmail account...)
*ahem* could I scrub that second "slightly" and insert "vaguely", please? Hate repeating myself.
consider yourself thoroughly scrubbed. Oh, and I had time to read that very interesting and informative article too. thanks Pash.
Yeah! The Beep is back. . .
why, where have I been?
That's a very scary article.
I find it hard to get past an immediate alarm about what the US govt might demand to see next and consider whether they should be allowed to see a selection of random stuff for a good cause. A very good cause as it happens.
But then I never realised that Google was supposed to be 'good' and wouldn't have believed it anyway. Nothing that's so big and far reaching and at the same time, so close to us all, could possibly be all good!
Food for thought....somewhat indigestible :)
Google can do what they want, hey are mighty and great. I *heart* Google :)
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