Political Skullduggery

In an obscene case of government overreaching, the feds have issued a subpoena to Google for a wide range of company records, according to the San Jose Mercury News.

To it's credit the online search giant is refusing to comply with the Justice Department order:

In court papers filed in U.S. District Court in San Jose, Justice Department lawyers revealed that Google has refused to comply with a subpoena issued last year for the records, which include a request for 1 million random Web addresses and records of all Google searches from any one-week period.

A million random fucking web addresses?

And records of all Google searches for a one-week period?

This would mean a whole lot of people who had nothing to do with online pornography (the ostensible reason for the subpoena) would be snared in the government net.

The Mountain View-based search and advertising giant opposes releasing the information on a variety of grounds, saying it would violate the privacy rights of its users and reveal company trade secrets, according to court documents.

Nicole Wong, an associate general counsel for Google, said the company will fight the government's effort "vigorously.''...

The case worries privacy advocates, given the vast amount of information Google and other search engines know about their users.

"This is exactly the kind of case that privacy advocates have long feared,'' said Ray Everett-Church, a South Bay privacy consultant. "The idea that these massive databases are being thrown open to anyone with a court document is the worst-case scenario. If they lose this fight, consumers will think twice about letting Google deep into their lives.''

Everett-Church, who has consulted with Internet companies facing subpoenas, said Google could argue that releasing the information causes undue harm to its users' privacy.

"The government can't even claim that it's for national security,'' Everett-Church said. "They're just using it to get the search engines to do their research for them in a way that compromises the civil liberties of other people.''

This is a god damn outrage.

Other search engine owning companies haven't shown the balls of Google:

The government indicated that other, unspecified search engines have agreed to release the information, but not Google.

Those other companies are showing an all too typical American ass-kissing deference to authority these days.