Google's Loss: The Privacy Wars

Today a Federal judge stopped short of giving the Bush Administration carte blanche to see anything searched using Internet search engines. He granted the Administration's request to mine data from Google to support an anti-pornography law in Federal court but did not grant the request to view a random sampling of searches. For now, your searches are safe....

But only for now. It's only a matter of time before someone in the Shrub's unfortunately named Justice Department decides it's important to know who is entering searches for "dirty bomb" or "terrorism" or even "progressive politics". These are enemies of the state in Bush's eyes: Remember that possession of a Casio wrist watch or wearing olive drab clothing in Afghanistan was enough to get you sent to Guantanamo. Today the judge said he didn't want to do anything to create the perception that internet search engines are Government surveillance tools. Today. Remember, Bush is appointing more judges all the time and he's radicalized the Supreme Court. Soon, to match sneak-and-peak searches, secret warrantless surveillance, inability to learn if you're the subject of a search and repeal of Habeas Corpus, we'll have the Internet search engines as tools to determine whether you're a Democrat or a terrorist, a homosexual or a libertarian, a thespian or a masticator.

Talk about a roadblock on the information superhighway. Not since Al Gore invented it has there been a greater threat to information flow on the Internet. And remember, Microsoft and Yahoo didn't even bother to fight the good fight. They just gave the Government what it asked for.

This obsession with domestic spying is typical of a dictator wannabe. Nixon did it (and maintained a 25 percent approval rating until the day he left office). Stalin and Hitler were masters at it. In fact, domestic espionage is one of the first steps to establishing absolute power. You either intimidate those who wouldn't support you or identify your enemies for later arrest under the guise of national security. Then, when you claim the throne, you simply use the information gathered. And yes, I truely believe Bush is power-mad. And Congress abdicated its responsibility to rein him in long ago.

Whether the Patriot Act, the warrantless espionage program or the subpoena of search engines, domestic espionage is out of control. Congress must act to place limits on the Executive or we risk rendering the Internet useless as people no longer search. Unlimited domestic espionage is the enemy of democracy, the little we have remaining to us.