R4M0N
Brazilian Soccer Ownz Joo
join:2000-10-04
Glen Allen, VA
 ·Comcast
| Google put itself in this predicament
Had they complied from the start, they would have come out ahead. The Brazilian court wasn't asking for wholesale data, it was asking for specific accounts with strong evidence of pedophilia and other criminal offenses. What google was doing was aiding criminals by keeping their information from the courts.
I have an orkut account to keep in touch with my Brazilian friends and the stuff you see in some accounts is outrageous and downright criminal. There was this one community blatantly selling illegal drugs from their forum.
Google's stance was unsustainable. It was basically saying "We don't care what they do, we're not telling you who they are". |
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BarneyBadAss
Badasses Fight For Freedom
Premium
join:2004-05-07
00001
 ·Verizon FIOS
| Your correct, Google put itself into this position.
And the reason they got there was becasue they were capturing data about search requests and storing it.
If they had never done that in the first place, now these g'ments woudn't be asking for the data.
Personally; I think they shouldn't capture the data at all.
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---Barney |
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2kmaro
Think
Premium,ExMod 1 BC
join:2000-07-11
ColossalCave
clubs:  
| reply to R4M0N
It does seem shameful that a refusal to give up personal information had to be made for such an obnoxious cause. But I think here in the States we've become accustomed to seeing strong defense of the accused's rights. To a degree this goes in that direction. I don't think Google was trying to protect the guilty so much as
#1 - protecting their information base,
#2 - protecting their income
#3 - protecting all from unreasonable search and siezure in the future.
No company should be forced to turn over such information if proper procedures haven't been followed. I wouldn't think badly of a company if they voluntarily handed over that kind of informationi for a situation like this, but even that sets a bad precendent the next time the company has to go to court to try to prevent such disclosure just because some one (RIAA comes to mind) or government comes at them and says "you have to because I said to". |
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