What's This All About, Anyway?
Published on 20 Jan 2006 · Filed in Rant · 163 words (estimated 1 minutes to read)Is it just me, or is anyone else bothered by the recent stories of MSN and Yahoo turning over customers’ search terms to the Federal government? Apparently, the same request was made to Google as well, and Google is battling the request.
Supposedly, the data being requested by the government is intended to be used as evidence in a trial that could revive a child privacy law intended to protect children online. As a father myself, I know how important it is to safeguard our children while they are online, but I’m loath to let the government do it via legislation—the track record isn’t really all that great. Remember CAN-SPAM, anyone?
In any case, perhaps I’m just paranoid, and some would claim that my resistance to this and other similar moves indicates a desire to hide something from the government. No, it’s just that as a free society that desires to remain free we’ve got to draw the line somewhere. Why not here?