EFF Urges Pressure On Google Over Book Search

angry tapir writes "The Electronic Frontier Foundation is urging its supporters to pressure Google to build significant privacy protections into its Book Search service. The EFF suggests that the service gives Google access to new personal information: what people are searching for in out-of-print and out-of-copyright books. The EFF posted its concerns with Google Book Search on its blog, with EFF designer/activist Hugh D'Andrade saying the search product could infringe on 'privacy of thought.' Google, in a responding blog post, said it will protect user privacy, though it can't yet say how — the service hasn't been designed yet, nor approved."

Comments

Re:Doesn't that apply to, well, everything?

[sbeckstead]

For the same reason that the Librarians have so far kept the cameras and tried to keep the FBI out of the library. Please I don't want somebody looking over my shoulder at what I want to read. I'm fine with the public search function on the search engine but this is a little too far.

Reminds me of a principle from the Xanadu project.

[Ungrounded Lightning]

One of Ted Nelson's insights that went into the planning of the Xanadu hypertext project: To replace paper publication you first have to do all the useful things it does at least as well as it did.

This is an instance of that: Once they're out of the store or library (and ignoring quibbles about DNA analysis of fingerprint material if a copy is later recovered by forensic types) dead-tree books don't leave a handy record of who read them. Reading a "book" on an electronic server does, as does purchasing and downloading a copy. (And DRM is explicitly designed to keep those copies from circulating, so additional readers have to go back to the source and leave additional tracks.)

AHA! Another argument against DRM and the DMCA: Loss of the readers' right to privacy.