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You all have read the same old drone – that our privacy is constantly being invaded on the Internet. Bank accounts, Social Security numbers, e-mail addresses and even your browsing preferences are all for the taking, and, for the most part, we’re the ones handing it over on a silver platter. Or at least that’s the way it’s going.
Last week, to the disgust of civil liberties groups and private citizens alike, the feds announced their latest scheme to crack down on HTMs hazardous to minors Web sites. No, we’re not talking child pornography here; we’re thinking more along the lines of the kind of sites to which children can get access. Last week, the FBI subpoenaed several major search engines – AOL, Yahoo! and MSN included – requesting the database of all the queries they had received over several months this summer. Most engines complied. But no, there’s not too much of a cause for alarm, yet – the FBI wanted only search queries and not your Internet protocol address, which would link these queries to the computer that sent them. But at the same time, it’s one step closer to Big Brother getting his hands on a very comprehensive look at the activities of private American citizens. Fortunately, the request isn’t going unchecked: The search engine giant of them all – you get three guesses who it is, and the first two don’t count – is calling the feds’ bluff.
Of course, the flow of information goes both ways, and while Google is championing civil liberties in the United States, it came out this week that the same multibillion-dollar corporation has been allowing the Communist Chinese government to censor Google search databases for that country’s citizens. Before, Chinese citizens had to pass through “the great firewall of China,” which prohibits them from browsing Web sites that the Chinese government deem “unacceptable” a definition which you can be assured is as broad as it is subjective. The same company that promises, “You can make money without doing evil,” announced this week that it will be moving several of its Chinese search databases overseas, and likewise will subject the Chinese citizens to further censorship.
Why bring this up – why care? An unbelievable amount of information about you is stored over the Internet, from your search queries to your personal correspondence. And, scariest of all, it’s a one-stop-shop in a store that’s proven to make dirty deals.
However, living without the Internet – heck, even living without search engines – would be comparable to living without a telephone in today’s plugged-in environment. The very heart of the Internet is its open-source nature: All information is free for the taking, as long as you know where to look. Google has been called “the closest thing the Web has to an ultimate answer machine,” and I’m not one to dispute its benefit. However, I’d like the power to stay with the people and not with “the man.” And, if we aren’t paying attention, we’re going to lose our privacy all over again.
Pattie Barry is on the run from Big Brother.
