The Bush administration is now looking to learn more about your Internet searches, on Google and other search engines. It is an alarming development.
In court papers filed Wednesday in San Jose, Calif., the Justice Department asked the U.S. District Court to force Google to provide a wide range of material to the government from its closely guard databases.
The request is part of a government effort to find a solution to an Internet child protection law overturned two years ago by the Supreme Court. The law was designed to punish pornography sites that make their sites available to minors.
Justice Department lawyers have requested that Google turn over to the government records of all Google searches for any one-week period plus 1 million random Web addresses.
This request is dangerous and far-reaching on so powerful a search communication tool as the Internet. This is the type of case that privacy advocates have been cocerned about for years: An Internet company is forced to turn over private database information to a government entity.
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This is not an argument about protecting pornographic Web sites, but one of privacy, a very basic American right. The danger lies in the government having access to records of what private citizens are searching.
The government would have access and could draw conclusions based upon what you search for, no matter what the topic. What is to prevent the government from targeting political views, government opponents or whether you like a certain color.
Once privacy is lost, it will be hard to regain. As a classic Ben Franklin quote reads, "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Franklin was the founder of our postal system, the pre-Internet system of communication. He fought many battles to protect and maintain the privacy of those using the mail.
Google and Americans must continue Franklin's battle for privacy, and fight the Bush administration's effort for Internet search records.
