Google also ogles

As culture wars go — America has been hosting them arguably since Elvis Presley invented ‘cool’ — the stand-off between George Bush’s Justice Department and Google should be a classic. Stuffy Washington versus Casual California; big government versus billionaire geeks; American moralists versus American libertarians. But while all this can be fascinating, it misses the point. The point is not whether Google should part with search data the US government wants as part of its battle against pornography. Of course, it shouldn’t. Such wide ranging official requirements violate fundamental privacy tenets. That Google’s competitors in the internet search business have cooperated doesn’t make its non-compliance unjustifiable. This is a fight worth having, not only in America but everywhere.

But that fight must include in its target list not only George but Google as well. Google, and other search engines, don’t really respect privacy either. For one, the firm, like quite a few others, has recast its business to suit Chinese government definitions of the internet. More important, for those fortunate enough not to surf under Beijing’s censors, everything they have looked for on the net is stored in Google databases. Given that the information corresponds to IP addresses — the equivalent of home address on the net — it’s easy to find out who searched for jello, and who for J Lo. Google and its competitors argue that maintaining records help them refine search, provide interesting services like listing top search items and offer spelling suggestions to lexicographically challenged surfers (those who type in ‘Gorge Boosh’, for example).

All that sounds reasonable. Except that governments can also offer reasonable arguments for wanting to know more about us. The US Justice Department, for example, is asking for search data for a wonderful cause: protecting children from online porn. Even many in the pornography business may agree with that aim. The question is the means. Asking for search data en masse violates the privacy of a lot of people, not just that of some nasty vendors and their customers. Similarly, keeping all search records in an internet search firm’s corporate offices violates the potential privacy of all surfers, not just that of people governments may be interested in. Think about it this way: if Google didn’t maintain search data could the US government have asked for it? In this culture war, there are no good guys.