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Patriot Act Haunts Google Service

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the patriot-act-so-good-at-making-friends dept.

The Globe and Mail has an interesting piece taking a look at Google's latest headache, the US Government. Many people are suddenly deciding to spurn Google's services and applications because it opens up potential avenues of surveillance. "Some other organizations are banning Google's innovative tools outright to avoid the prospect of U.S. spooks combing through their data. Security experts say many firms are only just starting to realize the risks they assume by embracing Web-based collaborative tools hosted by a U.S. company, a problem even more acute in Canada where federal privacy rules are at odds with U.S. security measures."

7 of 277 comments (clear)

  1. Not good enough by Naughty+Bob · · Score: 5, Funny

    Spurning these services will mark you out for further surveillance straight away.

    Have they never read Crime and Punishment?

    --
    "Be light, stinging, insolent and melancholy"
    1. Re:Not good enough by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      I would, but I am afraid to check it out from the library and get added to the terrorist watch list.

    2. Re:Not good enough by TommydCat · · Score: 5, Funny

      This guy spurned the services and look what happens to him!

      --
      This comment does not necessarily represent the views and opinions of the author.
    3. Re:Not good enough by fugue · · Score: 5, Funny

      The "wrong book" is in the library in order to fish for enemies of the people. Sort of how Bush was on the ballot to fish for people who should never be allowed to reproduce. Only someone forgot an important detail somewhere along the way.

      --
      "The biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it has taken place."
  2. Only terrorists host files abroad! by Digestromath · · Score: 5, Funny
    In this day and age, anyone who 'hides' thier data beyond the reach of America's patriotic government data mining operations is a cut and clear terrorist! Whether it be in some dank and dusty cave in the mountains of Afghanistan, or a climate controlled secure facility in Canada.

    Uncle Sam says "Do your part, keep data in America!"

    When you host abroad, your hosting with Osama!

    Privacy is for the unpatriotic!

  3. Re:PGP by Digi-John · · Score: 5, Funny

    yes, sTeganogRaphy seems like a good idea to me... perhaps we coUld even embed SecreTs iN Our messages ON slashdot or somEthing...

    --
    Klingon programs don't timeshare, they battle for supremacy.
  4. Re:Corporate Espionage? by hxnwix · · Score: 5, Funny

    It starts getting creepy when you realize that Google seems to work very hard to keep their employees inside the google campus as much as possible, how secretive their operations are (seriously, nobody can compete with them anymore- it's not like they're guarding the henhouse for competition reasons) and how cult-like the atmosphere is More sympathetically: if you keep the workers at work, they work more. However, I can't discount your view completely. Perhaps they really are preparing their worker bees for the transfer to the comet hale bop UFO, and if you are correct, they'd want to hold those workers close to their incorporeal breast so that word of this lunacy doesn't spread beyond the compound confines.

    I emailed a link to a wiki I had just set up to 3 people, two of whom had Gmail accounts. A spider from Google hit the page... Oh my gord. They sent a digital arachnid!?

    Hint: why do you think Google has so many PhDs? I don't know. Because they're employing Dr. Evil(s)?