Google faces more government demands for user info

[akfools]

Google faces more government demands for user info


SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Google is dealing with more government demands to turn over information about its users as more people immerse themselves online.

The mounting pressure on the Internet search leader emerged in a statistical snapshot that Google Inc. released Tuesday of its dealings with authorities around the world. Google provided a country-by-country capsule of its legal sparring with authorities during the first six months of the year.

This is the fourth time Google has disclosed a six-month summary of government requests since it started reporting the numbers last year following a high-profile showdown with China's communist government over online censorship. In Tuesday's update, Google included the total number of user accounts targeted, instead of just the number of requests made by police, prosecutors, courts and other agencies at all levels of government worldwide.

Google received more than 15,600 requests for user data in January through June period, 10 percent more than during the final six months of last year. The requests in the latest period spanned more than 25,400 individual accounts worldwide -- a tiny fraction of Google's more than billion users.

Google became a caretaker of sensitive personal information through its dominant search engine, which processes about two of every three online queries in the U.S. and an even larger share of queries in parts of Europe. The company also vacuums up information about what people are doing and thinking through its YouTube video service and increasingly popular Gmail service for communications. Meanwhile, Google is trying to get users to share even more tidbits about their lives on a social networking service called Plus, which has attracted more than 40 million accountholders since it debuted in June as an alternative to Facebook.

All that information makes Google a potentially valuable resource for authorities fighting crime, terrorism or other activities.

The highest volume of government demands for user data came from the U.S. (5,950 requests, a 29 percent increase from the previous six-month stretch); India (1,739 requests, up 2 percent); France (1,300 requests, up 27 percent); Britain (1,273 requests, up 10 percent); and Germany (1,060 requests, up 38 percent).

Google also listed how many times governments sought to censor video on the company's widely watched YouTube video site or demanded some other piece of content be removed for reasons ranging from privacy concerns to laws prohibiting hate speech.

The volume of worldwide censorship demands from governments remained at roughly the same level it reached in the previous six months, although there were sharp spikes in some countries. In Britain, for instance, the government asked Google to remove 220 videos from YouTube during the first six months of this year, compared with 40 videos during the previous six months. The British government wanted most of the videos taken down for "national security" reasons.

Google declined to provide more details on the videos that the British government saw as national security risks. Britain's Home Office would only say that "the government takes the threat of online extremism or hate content very seriously."

Google acquiesced to 82 percent of the British government's censorship demands in whole or part, according to Tuesday's breakdown.

The company usually complies with at least a portion of most government demands. Google has said it often has little choice because it must obey laws in the countries where it operates. The alternative is to leave, as it did last year when it shifted its search engine to Hong Kong so it wouldn't have to follow mainland China's censorship requirements.

In the U.S., Google gave federal, state and other agencies what they wanted 93 percent of the time. The nearly 6,000 requests affected more than 11,000 user accounts in January through June.

In India, Google honored 70 percent of the 1,739 requests, which targeted more than 2,400 users, the second-highest totals.

Google, which is based in Mountain View, Calif., rejected the most government demands for user information in Argentina, where it denied 68 percent of requests. It complied with less than 50 percent of government requests for user data in Canada, Chile, France, Hong Kong, Mexico, the Netherlands, Russia, Turkey and South Korea.

By disclosing how many government requests it receives every six months, Google hopes to encourage the passage of new laws that will give the company more leverage to deny government access to people's online communications and activities.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Google-faces-more-government-apf-3014635441.html?x=0

[Christian40]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7yfV6RzE30&feature=player_embedded

[Mark]

Soros Mouthpiece Calls On Google To Police “Conspiracy Theories”

Stanford scholar wants search engines to flag global warming, vaccine skepticism as thought crimes

Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Former fellow of George Soros’ Open Society and current Stanford University scholar Evgeny Morozov has called on Google and other search engines to become thought crime enforcers, by providing warnings about websites that contain “conspiracy theories” such as the belief, held by a majority of Americans, that global warming is not primarily man-made.

Morozov, whose biography confirms him as a well-connected insider, decries in a Slate piece how the Internet is a useful tool for “People who deny global warming” as well as “the anti-vaccination movement,” calling on Google to provide a “socially responsible curated treatment” that would marginalize such beliefs by amending search results.

His solution is to, “Nudge search engines to take more responsibility for their index and exercise a heavier curatorial control in presenting search results for issues like “global warming” or “vaccination.” Google already has a list of search queries that send most traffic to sites that trade in pseudoscience and conspiracy theories; why not treat them differently than normal queries? Thus, whenever users are presented with search results that are likely to send them to sites run by pseudoscientists or conspiracy theorists, Google may simply display a huge red banner asking users to exercise caution and check a previously generated list of authoritative resources before making up their minds.”

Morozov describes the potential that such a move will be judged as Google “shilling for Big Pharma or for Al Gore” as “a risk worth taking”.

This represents a similar argument to Cass Sunstein’s “cognitive infiltration,” an effort by Obama’s information czar to slap government warnings on controversial websites (including those claiming that exposure to sunlight is healthy). In a widely derided white paper, Sunstein called for political blogs to be forced to include pop ups that show “a quick argument for a competing view”. He also demanded that taxes be levied on dissenting opinions and even suggested that outright bans on certain thoughts should be enforced.

Giving companies like Google, which has grown to virtually become the gatekeeper of the entire Internet itself and is already engaging in SOPA-like acts of censorship, the power to denote which political and scientific positions are acceptable and which are fringe “conspiracy theories” is an insult to free thinking and smacks of Chinese-style thought control.

Morozov’s argument is also completely undermined by the fact that the two so-called fringe “conspiracy theories” he forwards as being in need of Google’s thought crime control, skepticism about global warming and the dangers of vaccines, are views held by millions of Americans and are not “fringe” at all.

According to the most recent polls, less than half of Americans now believe that global warming is caused by human activity, a number that has been slipping for the past several years.

rest: http://www.infowars.com/soros-mouthpiece-calls-on-google-to-police-conspiracy-theories/print/

[Mark]

Google announces privacy changes across products; users can’t opt out

By Cecilia Kang, Published: January 24

Google will soon know far more about who you are and what you do on the Web.

The Web giant announced Tuesday that it plans to follow the activities of users across nearly all of its ubiquitous sites, including YouTube, Gmail and its leading search engine.

Google has already been collecting some of this information. But for the first time, it is combining data across its Web sites to stitch together a fuller portrait of users.

Consumers won’t be able to opt out of the changes, which take effect March 1. And experts say the policy shift will invite greater scrutiny from federal regulators of the company’s privacy and competitive practices.

More: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/google-tracks-consumers-across-products-users-cant-opt-out/2012/01/24/gIQArgJHOQ_story.html?wpisrc=al_comboNE_b

[Mark]

"The US Federal Bureau of Investigation [FBI] has quietly released details of plans to continuously monitor the global output of Facebook.


The US Federal Bureau of Investigation has quietly released details of plans to continuously monitor the global output of Facebook, Twitter and other social networks, offering a rare glimpse into an activity that the FBI and other government agencies are reluctant to discuss publicly. The plans show that the bureau believes it can use information pulled from social media sites to better respond to crises, and maybe even to foresee them.

The information comes from a document released on 19 January looking for companies who might want to build a monitoring system for the FBI. It spells out what the bureau wants from such a system and invites potential contractors to reply by 10 February.

The bureau's wish list calls for the system to be able to automatically search "publicly available" material from Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites for keywords relating to terrorism, surveillance operations, online crime and other FBI missions. Agents would be alerted if the searches produce evidence of "breaking events, incidents, and emerging threats".
Agents will have the option of displaying the tweets and other material captured by the system on a map, to which they can add layers of other data, including the locations of US embassies and military installations, details of previous terrorist attacks and the output from local traffic cameras.

The document suggests that the bureau wants to use social media to target specific users or groups of users. It notes that agents need to "locate bad actors...and analyze their movements, vulnerabilities, limitations, and possible adverse actions". It also states that the bureau will use social media to create "pattern-of-life matrices" -- presumably logs of targets' daily routines -- that will aid law enforcement in planning operations.

The use of the term "publicly available" suggests that Facebook and Twitter may be able to exempt themselves from the monitoring by making their posts private. But the desire of the US government to watch everyone may still have an unwelcome impact, warns Jennifer Lynch at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a San Francisco-based advocacy group.

Lynch says that many people post to social media in the expectation that only their friends and followers are reading, which gives them "the sense of freedom to say what they want without worrying too much about recourse," says Lynch. "But these tools that mine open source data and presumably store it for a very long time, do away with that kind of privacy. I worry about the effect of that on free speech in the US".

The document also suggests that the FBI thinks it can use social media to peer into the future. It notes that agents need to use social media to "[p]redict likely developments in the situation or future actions taken by bad actors (by conducting, [sic] trend, pattern, association, and timeline analysis)".

The bureau declined to immediately comment on how this analysis might work, or on any other aspect of the document, but the idea of turning agents into digital soothsayers is plausible: researchers working at Facebook and in academia have shown that social media can be used to infer many things about an individual, including the existence of friendships that are not declared on social networking sites and the location of users who have not revealed where they are based.

http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/onepercent/2012/01/fbi-releases-plans-to-monitor.html

[Mark]

Google: We'll pay you to track the Web sites you visit

Pssst... Wanna earn 25 bucks? Here's an offer from the folks at Google.

The search giant is promising up to $25 in Amazon gift cards if you let it track the Web sites you visit and how you use them. Through a new project known as Screenwise, you install a browser extension that monitors every site you check out.

Google's stated goal is to find out how everyday people use the Internet in an attempt to help it improve its own products and services.

Those of you not shy about sharing your Web sites can score a $5 Amazon gift card when you sign up and download the Screenwise browser extension. You're then eligible for another $5 card for every three months that you stick with the program until the $25 max kicks in. However, the company is thinking about what further amounts it could add for people who last more than 12 months.

According to Google, "it's our way of saying 'Thank you.'"

REST: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57373869-93/google-well-pay-you-to-track-the-web-sites-you-visit/

[Mark]

Google: Surveillance 'is on the rise'

Google received more requests from the U.S. government to hand over user data during the first half of this year than from any other country, according to the search company's biannual "Transparency Report" released on Tuesday.

From January to June, Google received nearly 8,000 requests for user data from the U.S. government. The search company said it "fully or partially" compiled with roughly 90 percent of them. That's up from the 5,950 requests for user data that Google received from the U.S. government during the same period a year ago.


More than 16,000 Google accounts were specified in the U.S. government's user data requests, according to the report. 

However, the search company cautioned that the total number of U.S. government requests for user data also tallied requests "issued by U.S. authorities on behalf of other governments pursuant to mutual legal assistance treaties and other diplomatic mechanisms."

Still, that number dwarfs the requests from other countries: India and Brazil came after the U.S. with 2,319 and 1,566 requests for user data, respectively, during the first half of 2012.

http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/267591-google-us-made-nearly-8000-requests-for-user-data

[Mark]

Google starts watching what you do off the Internet too

The most powerful company on the Internet just got a whole lot creepier: a new service from Google merges offline consumer info with online intelligence, allowing advertisers to target users based on what they do at the keyboard and at the mall.

Without much fanfare, Google announced news this week of a new advertising project, Conversions API, that will let businesses build all-encompassing user profiles based off of not just what users search for on the Web, but what they purchase outside of the home.
In a blog post this week on Google’s DoubleClick Search site, the Silicon Valley giant says that targeting consumers based off online information only allows advertisers to learn so much. “Conversions,” tech-speak for the digital metric made by every action a user makes online, are incomplete until coupled with real life data, Google says.

“We understand that online advertising also fuels offline conversions,” the blog post reads. Thus, Google says, “To capture these lost conversions and bring offline into your online world, we’re announcing the open beta of our Conversions API for uploading offline conversion automatically.”

The blog goes on to explain that in-store transactions, call-tracking and other online activities can be inputted into Google to be combined with other information “to optimize your campaigns based on even more of your business data.”

Google is all but certain to ensure that all user data collected off- and online will be cloaked through safeguards that will allow for complete and total anonymity for customers. When on-the-Web interactions start mirroring real life activity, though, even a certain degree of privacy doesn’t make Conversions API any less creepy. As Jim Edwards writes for Business Insider, “If you bought a T shirt at The Gap in the mall with your credit card, you could start seeing a lot more Gap ads online later, suggesting jeans that go with that shirt.”

Of course, there is always the possibility that all of this information can be unencrypted and, in some cases, obtained by third-parties that you might not want prying into your personal business. Edwards notes in his report that Google does not explicitly note that intelligence used in Conversions API will be anonymized, but the blowback from not doing as much would sure be enough to start a colossal uproar. Meanwhile, however, all of the information being collected by Google — estimated to be on millions of servers around the globe — is being handed over to more than just advertising companies. Last month Google reported that the US government requested personal information from roughly 8,000 individual users during just the first few months of 2012.

“This is the sixth time we’ve released this data, and one trend has become clear: Government surveillance is on the rise,” Google admitted with their report.

http://rt.com/usa/news/google-internet-online-offline-500/

[Mark]

Google Complies With Government Requests for User Data 88% of the Time   
 
    Internet company Google complies with requests for user data 88 percent of the time government asks, according to data released today by Google.

In all, the government, including both local and federal agencies, made 8,438 requests between July and December of last year from Google for data from 14,791 users/accounts. These requests were either part of a warrant, a subpoena, or something else. Google handed over the data 88 percent of the time.

Here's the breakdown, via Google:

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/google-complies-government-requests-user-data-88-time_697551.html

[Kilika]

Oh, like we are suppose to believe what Google says they handed over? 

[Mark]

Google Will Help Police to Track “Extremist Websites” Through its Search Results

Google Chairman “Eric Schmidt” said that they will help the police trace “extremist websites” and that legal information on Google’s search engine will be indexed to help track “terrorism- promoting websites.”

According to The Guardian reports ,Schmidt was asked to remove the extremist websites from Google’s search engines during the Hay festival. Answering a question posed from an impassioned audience member, he said: “I am rather perplexed by this issue. The international tax regime has been around a long time. No rational computer scientist would have erected such a system.” He said that decisions about these matters should be taken by elected governments and not companies. “Under US law we have a fiduciary responsibility to do what we’re doing. We understand the complaint but we can’t fix it. The British government can fix it,” he said.

Schmidt further said that the police can detect extremists through their internet activity as they leave a digital trail and their online presence can sometimes help in tracking them and their pre-planned terrorist activities.

Asked if Google is now more powerful than many countries and whether it in effect operates just like one, Schmidt said it was not an aim of the company. “We’re not becoming a state. We don’t want to be because states have a lot of complicated problems.

“On the whole, it is a fight between the internet community and government who do what they want to do. We can’t force governments to do what we want,” he said.

http://intellihub.com/2013/05/27/google-will-help-police-to-track-extremist-websites-through-its-search-results/

[Kilika]

We can’t force governments to do what we want,” he said.

This from the chairman of Google, and more proof that they are a civilian arm of government. Basically, he's telling people that the people have no say what government does.

[Mark]

Judge orders Google to comply with FBI's secret NSL demands
A federal judge tells the company to comply with the FBI's warrantless National Security Letter requests for user details, despite ongoing concerns about their constitutionality.

A federal judge has ruled that Google must comply with the FBI's warrantless requests for confidential user data, despite the search company's arguments that the secret demands are illegal.

CNET has learned that U.S. District Judge Susan Illston in San Francisco rejected Google's request to modify or throw out 19 so-called National Security Letters, a warrantless electronic data-gathering technique used by the FBI that does not need a judge's approval. Her ruling came after a pair of top FBI officials, including an assistant director, submitted classified affidavits.

The litigation taking place behind closed doors in Illston's courtroom -- a closed-to-the-public hearing was held on May 10 -- could set new ground rules curbing the FBI's warrantless access to information that Internet and other companies hold on behalf of their users. The FBI issued 192,499 of the demands from 2003 to 2006, and 97 percent of NSLs include a mandatory gag order.

rest: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-57587003-38/judge-orders-google-to-comply-with-fbis-secret-nsl-demands/

[Kilika]

The FBI issued 192,499 of the demands from 2003 to 2006, and 97 percent of NSLs include a mandatory gag order.

No warrant, no talking about it, just comply as your told is apparently the government mandate, enforced by the US Secret Police. 

[Christian40]

How the CIA made google

http://www.mintpressnews.com/cia-made-google/201521/