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Re:Schneier's response to Eric Schmidt by andrewcooke on Wednesday December 09, 2009 @06:32PM (#986893)
at the least, i think you are misreading the tone and giving a rather generous interpretation of what was said. schmidt could have said what you wrote. he could have something much more critical of the position he was in. he did neither.

also, your definition of "reasonable" is not one we all need share. there is a trade-off between profit and privacy here - the balance google has chosen is not the only one possible.

so twice you slant your argument to suit google. once by interpreting what was said in as favourable a way as possible, and once by presenting the false dichotomy of "google v martyr".

Re:Schneier's response to Eric Schmidt by ekiru on Wednesday December 09, 2009 @06:59PM (#986939)
"People are treating Google like their most trusted friend. Should they be?"

"I think judgment matters. If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place. If you really need that kind of privacy, the reality is that search engines -- including Google -- do retain this information for some time and it's important, for example, that we are all subject in the United States to the Patriot Act and it is possible that all that information could be made available to the authorities."

The quote was in response to a question about to what extent it is wise to trust Google(not a moral question, but a pragmatic one). All of Schmidt's response, except perhaps one sentence("If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place.") which is itself ambiguous, is describing pragmatic reasons why Google can not legally protect you from the government. Given that the context of the remark in which "maybe you shouldn't be doing it" either means you shouldn't be doing something you want hidden, or means that you shouldn't be trusting Google with the knowledge that you are doing something that you don't want the government knowing about because they may not be able to keep that information from the government without violating the law, I'm inclined to interpret it as the latter.

With regard to "google v martyr" being a false dichotomy, how could Google not respond to a subpoena for the search data for a certain IP address without suffering legal consequences?

Re:Schneier's response to Eric Schmidt by locacorten on Wednesday December 09, 2009 @11:46PM (#987317)
Just to clear the record: there is technology out there that can obfuscate data (anonymization) and offer protection against unauthorized access (it is even possible to store data in tamper-proof systems to which nobody has access, including Google). Nobody is suggesting Google should not respond to subpoenas. We are suggesting that Google protect our data and take steps to reduce the risks of subpoenas.