Is Web Search Data Private?
The federal government asked web search providers to save the information for a 90-day period as provided for in the 1986 Stored Communications Act. This request led to yet another uproar over privacy rights. The original request did not ask for names to be attached to the data, but were interested in mining the data for phrases that might be used by terrorism suspects, child pornographers and drug smugglers.
It was suggested by USA Today that AOL, Yahoo! and Microsoft provided limited information while Google loudly protested and refused to comply. This space is not large enough to debate the pros and cons of such requests, so I leave that discussion to those among you who wish to do so in private.
The administration wanted to extend the period to two years. Remember the law is on the books and has been for twenty years. As with fraud, forgery, and counterfeiting, law enforcement has shifted a part of the job to the private sector.
Then a funny thing happened on the way to the debate, AOL exposed data collected from searches of 650,000 users. The results are probably what you might expect, millions of searches, most in search of free stuff. The word “sex” was 17th on the list. Large scale searches for child porn, explosives, and drugs do not exist.
Everyone who uses a device connected to the Internet should know the following: Your searches are not private! (by law they have been saved for a 90-day period for the past 20 years) You are not anonymous! (every request on the Internet can be traced) If it is illegal in the physical world, it is probably illegal in the cyber world. (child porn, drug smuggling and gambling online within the United States)
Most people are decent and law abiding. That is the reason we don’t need more police than civilians. Just as computers have allowed business to increase volume at incredible speed, the same factors have been used by people who wish to break laws.
It was suggested by USA Today that AOL, Yahoo! and Microsoft provided limited information while Google loudly protested and refused to comply. This space is not large enough to debate the pros and cons of such requests, so I leave that discussion to those among you who wish to do so in private.
The administration wanted to extend the period to two years. Remember the law is on the books and has been for twenty years. As with fraud, forgery, and counterfeiting, law enforcement has shifted a part of the job to the private sector.
Then a funny thing happened on the way to the debate, AOL exposed data collected from searches of 650,000 users. The results are probably what you might expect, millions of searches, most in search of free stuff. The word “sex” was 17th on the list. Large scale searches for child porn, explosives, and drugs do not exist.
Everyone who uses a device connected to the Internet should know the following: Your searches are not private! (by law they have been saved for a 90-day period for the past 20 years) You are not anonymous! (every request on the Internet can be traced) If it is illegal in the physical world, it is probably illegal in the cyber world. (child porn, drug smuggling and gambling online within the United States)
Most people are decent and law abiding. That is the reason we don’t need more police than civilians. Just as computers have allowed business to increase volume at incredible speed, the same factors have been used by people who wish to break laws.
posted by skgroner | 1:42 PM
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