Our
View: Subpoena on Google unjust, excessive
Google makes the news for a lot of
reasons, but lately it has struck the media’s
attention by resisting federal government requests.
The Feds, according to CBS News, have given
Google a subpoena that “demands the addresses
for a million random Web sites plus a week’s
worth of searches
on Google.” The subpoena’s goal is “to protect children from
finding pornography on the Internet.”
What a cop out. This subpoena is not as admirable as that. It’s not about
protection, but about maintaining authority. The government is thinking that
by monitoring the searches on Google, one of the most popular Web sites today,
it can establish a degree of control over an otherwise uncontrollable domain:
the Internet.
How does the government think it can control the behemoth that is the World Wide
Web (or Google for that matter)? Only perhaps with a continual feeling of egotism
and a renewed Patriot Act are such thoughts possible in the minds of those in
charge.
The Bush administration has a conservative agenda, but many aspects of that agenda
like this one are becoming totally ridiculous. The Bush administration’s
persistent arrogance in office as captains of a sinking ship is simply astounding.
They know they cannot control the Internet, but are trying to anyway. They also
claim the identities of the information seekers will not be revealed, so it is
not a personal privacy issue at stake they claim.
That’s true. If the identities of the Google searchers are not revealed,
no true “personal” information is disclosed. The information, rather,
becomes a collective data set to be inspected by the government. On those grounds,
their argument is solid.
But the matter is not about personal privacy, as it is often portrayed. It’s
about how much authority we should give our government for our own protection.
In this case of the Google subpoena, it is too much.
Other powers such as the Patriot Act or increased CIA and National Security Agency
abilities to fight global terrorism can be appropriate, even necessary.
Using
this extension of power to find Internet porn, even with the intention of keeping
it from the hands of children, is an example of excessive governmental control
and should not be tolerated. Children will find porn anyway, and it should not
be big news to the government that pornography is a very common subject for searches.
After the leaking of the identity of a CIA operative, a lack of preparation and
aid for victims of Hurricane Katrina and numerous blunders abroad, it has become
increasingly difficult to trust the actions of the current administration.
This is just another example of the breech in trust and respect that has become
the
norm from those who are currently in office.
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