Search Engines and Privacy
At the end of July, AOL released the search records of over 500 thousand people for the research community to use. They replaced the identifying information (IP or Hostname) with a randomly generated number but some people have expressed concern that an analysis of the overall search patterns could still reveal the identities of the searchers. AOL later withdrew the data and apologized for the posting saying if the data had been properly vetted that this never would have happened.
In January 2006 as part of the defense of an Internet Pornography law, the Department of Justice attempted to subpeona a large sampling of search logs from Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and America Online. The initial request was for all URLs indexed in their databases as of July 31, 2005 and a log of all queries performed from June 1 to July 31, 2005. Only Google choose to openly fight the request and only AOL confirmed providing the DoJ with "aggregate and anonymous search terms, and not results, from a roughly 1-day period."
So as a privacy advocate and a cynic, I have to assume that this means that Microsoft and Yahoo provided at least more than what AOL admits to, which if anything is probably an understatement as well.
Of course, we have to remember that both Google and Yahoo have admitted to providing the Chinese government with data when requested and that its been shown that tracing an email on Yahoo directly lead to the arrest of online journalist Shi Tao and Google founder Sergey Brin admitted that they had violated their own principle of do no evil with regards to their China operations.
In the end, I think its clear that the individual should never feel safe sharing their private data. Whether its with a corporation or their government that data will be used in ways the individual never realized or would have accepted if they'd known.
The real question is how can we protect ourselves from these abuses?
Short term, get to know and use anonymous proxies (like {NODE 58}Tor{/NODE} and {NODE 59}Privoxy{/NODE}) as part of your everyday routine. The small amount of lag and waiting is well worth it whenever you hear about more logs being released.
In the long term, we need to pursue changes in the law and in culture that respect peoples privacy and their rights to use anonymous proxies. In the United States, we have the Second Amendment to the Constitution that gives us the right to bare arms so that we can defend our physical persons against an over invasive government. Maybe its time to consider a new amendment that would grant us similar protections for the contents of our minds and personalities. Something to guarantee that the government could never take way our ability to communicate anonymously and to read what we choose.
A sampling of the many stories and links: Amnesty International: China: Internet companies assist censorship Amnesty International: Yahoo’s data contributes to arrests in China: free Shi Tao from prison in China CNET: AOL apologizes for release of user search data Salon: "Freedom": No documents found Times Online: Google admits being compromised over China Washington Post: Yahoo Says It Gave China Internet Data - Journalist Jailed By Tracing E-mail ZDNet: Feds take porn fight to Google ZDNet: FAQ: What does the Google subpoena mean?
