SORTA LIKE FLEAS ?

And things of that ilk.

An article in mid-paper of the Rocky Mountain News this morning by Michael Liedtke of the Associated Press indicates that there is at least one outfit that stands up for us. In full then:

YOU CAN'T PEEK GOOGLE TELLS FEDS

U.S. Wants to know what people search for on the internet

SAN FRANCISCO -- "Google Inc. is rebuffing the Bush administration's demand for a peek at what milions of people have been looking up on the Internet's leading search engine -- a request that underscores the potential for online databases to become tools of the government."

"Mountain View, Calif., based Google has refused to comply with a White House subpoena first isssued last summer, prompting U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales this week to ask a federal judge in San Jose for an order to force a handover of the requested records."

"The government wants a list of all requests entered into Google's search engine during an unspecified single week -- a breakdown that could conceivably span tens of millions of queries. In addition, it seeks 1 million randomly selected Web addresses from various Google databases."

"In court papers reviewed by the San Jose Mercury News, the Bush administration depicts the information as vital in its effort to restore online child-protection laws that have been struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court.""Google competitor Yahoo Inc., which runs the Internet's second-most used search engine, confirmed Thursday it had complied with a similar government subpoena, but provided no personal information about users."

"Althought the government says it isn't seeking any data that ties personal information to search requests, the subpoena still raises serious privacy concerns, experts said, especially considering revelations that the White House authorized eavesdropping on domestic civilian commuinications after the Sept. 11 attacks without obtaining court approval."

"The content of search requests sometimes contain information about the person making the query. For instance it is not unusual for search requests to include Social Security information, said Pam Dixon, executive director for the World Privacy Forum."

"This is exactly the kind of thing we have been worrying about with search engine for some time," Dixon said. "Google should be commended for fighting this."

"Other search engines -- not identified -- already have complied with similar subpoenas issued by the Bush administration, according to court documents."

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It comes back to law enforcement agencies trying to get information about who bought what book . . . . Supposing a mystery story writer bought books on bomb making, different lethal poisons and such. If his name turned up on a search by law enforcement it could be expected that his environs would be trashed in a frantic search trying to find evidence of some activity unrelated to the writers activity or intent.

One paragraph, "In court papers reviewed by the San Jose Mercury News, the Bush administration depicts the information as vital in its effort to restore online child-protection laws that have been struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court."

In other words it looks like the Bush adminstration is attempting to force its way into reversing the Supreme Court's decision. Rather than try to find a way to prevent pedophiles from contacting children via the internet for ulterior purposes which would make more sense to me. Headed the way they are now, in my mind, thereby enabling themselves to decide that a certain thing normally accepted as legal could by their point of view be totally illegal. Then it would be at their whim to go whichever way they wanted to.

They want to pore over e-mails, see what questions people are asking search engines - - - - what the heck next ?

If our populace was a dog, would the Bush Administration be SORTA LIKE FLEAS ? . . . . . . . . . .