Internet Users Thinking Twice Before a Search

[cal04]

Kathryn Hanson, a former telecommunications engineer who lives in Oakland, Calif., was looking at BBC News online last week when she came across an item about a British politician who had resigned over a reported affair with a "rent boy." It was the first time Ms. Hanson had seen the term, so, in search of a definition, she typed it into Google. As Ms. Hanson scrolled through the results, she saw that several of the sites were available only to people over 18. She suddenly had a frightening thought. Would Google have to inform the government that she was looking for a rent boy - a young male prostitute?

Ms. Hanson, 45, immediately told her boyfriend what she had done. "I told him I'd Googled 'rent boy,' just in case I got whisked off to some Navy prison in the dead of night," she said. Ms. Hanson's reaction arose from last week's reports that as part of its effort to uphold an online pornography law, the Justice Department had asked a federal judge to compel Google to turn over records on millions of its users' search queries. Google is resisting the request, but three of its competitors - Yahoo, MSN and America Online - have turned over similar information.

The government and the cooperating companies say the search queries cannot be traced to their source, and therefore no personal information about users is being given up. But the government's move is one of several recent episodes that have caused some people to think twice about the information they type into a search engine, or the opinions they express in an e-mail message. The government has been more aggressive recently in its efforts to obtain data on Internet activity, invoking the fight against terrorism and the prosecution of online crime.

A surveillance program in which the National Security Agency intercepted certain international phone calls and e-mail in the United States without court-approved warrants prompted an outcry among civil libertarians. And under the antiterrorism USA Patriot Act, the Justice Department has demanded records on library patrons' Internet use. Those actions have put some Internet users on edge, as they confront the complications and contradictions of online life.
Jim Kowats, 34, a television producer who lives in Washington, has been growing increasingly concerned about the government's data collection efforts. "I'm not a conspiracy theorist, I just feel like it's one step away from ... what's the next step?" Mr. Kowats said. "The government's going to start looking into all this other stuff."

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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/25/national/25privacy.html?hp&ex=1138165200&en=53ada0c511b528d5&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[madeline_con]

1. "... looking for a rent boy ..."

:dilemma:

[Burried News]

2. Only Evil Doers need be afeared.

[stillcool]

3. it is so insidious..

..feel the fear and do it anyway is my new motto.

[yorkiemommie1]

6. they want to instill fear

and hesitation, even if it is subliminal. and it won't be just fear of searching online, it will be fear of talking, or making the wrong facial expressions - as they are already doing, or say they are going to do, in airports - .....

i feel like the flood waters are creeping up my legs every time they make another of these intimidating moves.

[iamjoy]

4. I'm Concerned Too

let's just say curiousity has led me to do lots of searches that COULD be miscontrued.

[Liberal In Texas]

5. Hmmm, More and more, it's looking like the old Soviet Union.

Thanks Cons.

[cdsilv]

7. Google (or Dogpile) - "George W. Bush eats boogers".....

...flood them with 'frivolous' searches....

I use dogpile, as it is a 'meta-search' engine which farms out the search to MSN, AskJeeves, Google, etc....

I plan to do some silly, infantile searches which will piss off bunnypants.