Great Rant by Slate: In Google We Trust?

Keeping Secrets - A simple prescription for keeping Google's records out of government hands. By Tim Wu: "
Keeping Secrets
A simple prescription for keeping Google's records out of government hands.
By Tim Wu
Posted Monday, Jan. 23, 2006, at 4:19 PM ET

In Google's Mountain View, Calif., campus, there's an LCD showing what's being searched for at any moment. A passing glance may reveal that information on "Depression" "martial counseling," or "anna kournikova" are all hotly sought after at a given time. The revelation that Google is fighting a Bush administration subpoena seeking to get hold of search records like these has, unsurprisingly, hit a lot of nerves. In part because it pits the Bush administration against Google—making the case a kind of a showdown of East coast against West; religion vs. science; Jedi Masters of information-seeking vs. Jedi Masters of information control, and so on.

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