Legal Drama For Google & Its Users

Larry Magid On Privacy Battle Between Gov't & Search Engine Giant

(CBS)  Through the FBI, he was able to get a court order to compel Cox to turn over the names and addresses of the individuals. These and other techniques are used by law enforcement regularly to track down suspected criminals including people who are distributing child pornography, but they do require a court order or other legal justification. Gibson said that it's also "how the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) is able to sue all these people who are doing file sharing."

Google, whose privacy policy states what information it collects, clearly says "Google does comply with valid legal process, such as search warrants, court orders, or subpoenas seeking personal information."

Gibson added, "if the FBI (with proper court authority) wanted to know who it was in the physical world who went to a Web site, if they knew when they went to a Web site they would ask the ISP who had that IP at a certain period of time and they would know who you were."

Gibson, however, says that it's "improbable" that Google or other Web providers could go back, say, two years and find out who had been searching for what sites.

Gibson doesn't worry about his own privacy being at stake. "I figure I'm probably not on anyone's radar, but I recognize that there are people whose interests might put them on someone's radar so I respect people's concerns, but it's not something I worry about," he says.

He said that he is concerned "that a search engine is keeping these kinds of records. If I could push a button and have Google flush their records of any prior searches I've made, that's a button I would push."

While there is no button that automatically purges information from Web server there is a way to delete cookies from your PC or prevent your browser from accepting cookies. Before deleting cookies, realize that you may have to, once again, provide information to sites you visit such as your user name or password.

If you refuse to accept cookies, you may be denied access to some sites or services and will repeatedly have to enter information. You can delete cookies within Internet Explorer by selecting Internet Options from the Tools menu and clicking on the appropriate link in the General tab. There are further controls on the Privacy tab. Firefox privacy options are controlled: go to the Tools menu and select Options.

Of course, if you're really concerned about your privacy you have a lot more to worry about than your Web surfing. If you use a credit card, an ATM card, checks, a cell phone, a regular phone, a supermarket discount card or an automatic toll booth payment system, then you're already living in a fishbowl.

The companies that issue those cards can figure out where you've been, what you've bought and who you're talking to. Whether or not this data gets in the wrong hands, is not so much a technology issue as it is a public policy issue.

At the end of the day, I have to agree with a statement from Google's privacy policy: "As has always been the case, the primary protections you have against intrusions by the government are the laws that apply to where you live."

And, I would add, the way that political, legislative and legal authorities interpret those laws.