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January 25, 2006
Thinking twice about Web searches
In the wake of the news last week that AOL and Yahoo had released information about Web searches to the government and that Google had refused to do the same, The New York Times published an article about how this development can affect people's daily lives. Here is an example:
Kathryn Hanson, a former telecommunications engineer who lives in Oakland, Calif., was looking at BBC News online last week when she came across an item about a British politician who had resigned over a reported affair with a "rent boy."It was the first time Ms. Hanson had seen the term, so, in search of a definition, she typed it into Google. As Ms. Hanson scrolled through the results, she saw that several of the sites were available only to people over 18. She suddenly had a frightening thought. Would Google have to inform the government that she was looking for a rent boy - a young male prostitute?
The fact that the government can request Internet search records to investigate certain crimes may cause some to re-evaluate how they use the Internet.
Posted by Faith Okpotor at January 25, 2006 05:12 PM
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