Bush Versus Privacy

The Bush administration has proved once again that it is not a champion of American values, including that of privacy. Even if their goals seem good (namely fighting child pornography), they want data that could potentially be used against Americans for all kinds of reasons.

The Washington Post writes:

The Bush administration, seeking to revive an online pornography law struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court, has subpoenaed Google Inc. for details on what its users have been looking for through its popular search engine.

Google has refused to comply with the subpoena, issued last year, for a broad range of material from its databases, including a request for 1 million random Web addresses and records of all Google searches from any one-week period, lawyers for the U.S. Justice Department said in papers filed Wednesday in federal court in San Jose.

It is only ironic that Google fights for privacy rights in the US, while it seems to comply with censorship rules in China. (see for example this article)