In an
unbelievable act of hubris, even for this Administration, the Department of
Justice has subpoenaed Google for a week’s worth of search records for one
million random Web addresses. One
million random Web addresses. That would
be like Citibank sending credit card offers to everyone in the Los Angeles white pages. It’s absurd.
And the worst of it is that the Administration isn’t even doing this in
service to the War on Terrorism or for some other national security reason. No, according to the San Jose Mercury News, the
DOJ is mounting a case to revive a child protection law struck down by the
Supreme Court two years ago. In this
case “the enemy” means a handful of scholarly lawyers who actually base their
decisions on rational consideration of the facts … versus the latest petulant
ultimatums of their right-wing donors.
While I
have my suspicions about Google and their big black box, kudos to them for
refusing to comply with this ridiculous demand. And for the Bush Administration, I might suggest a little course in
target marketing.
To quote
Danny Sullivan: “Here's a thought. If
you want to measure how much porn is showing up in searches, try searching for
it yourself rather than issuing privacy alarm sounding subpoenas. It would
certainly be more accurate.”
Comments