The Justice Department submitted a declaration by Philip B. Stark, a researcher who rejected the privacy concerns, noting that the government specifically requested that Google remove any identifying information from the search requests.

“The study does not involve examining the queries in more than a cursory way. It involves running a random sample of the queries through the Google search engine and categorizing the results,” Stark, a statistics professor at the University of California, Berkeley, said.

Mountain View, Calif.-based Google has staunchly resisted the Justice Department since receiving a subpoena last summer, setting the stage for the current legal battle.

The case has attracted widespread attention because it has underscored the potential for Internet search engines becoming tools for government surveillance. A hearing is scheduled before U.S. District Judge James Ware in San Jose March 13. […]

Yahoo News

Wether the data is stripped of personally identifying information or not, its MY DATA and GOOGLE owns it. The DOJ could at any time, go back to Google and ask them to reveal the person who searched for XYZ once they have the anonymized data. Philip Stark must know this. If he does not, he should not have allowed himself to be trotted out as an apologist for this mass violation.

Academics without morals; the most dangerous men on the planet.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 27th, 2006 at 9:17 am and is filed under People, Politricks.