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Ron Paul on US Patriot Act (and how this relates to Google)

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

Thursday, May 29, 2008
16 years ago2,464 views

You may save your private data like emails in Gmail or notes in Google Docs, and as you may know, the Google privacy policy tells you that your saved information may be passed to third parties in certain cases. One of these cases include when Google believes that disclosure of such information satisfies applicable laws or enforceable government requests. US politician Ron Paul in his new book The Revolution* (very readable with clearly structured arguments, whatever you may think of Ron Paul's positions and whether or not you agree with him) gives a description of the US Patriot Act which is therefore relevant in this issue:

<<The misnamed Patriot Act, presented to the public as an antiterrorism measure, actually focuses on American citizens rather than foreign terrorists. The definition of "terrorism" for federal criminal purposes is greatly expanded, such that legitimate protest against the government could someday place an American under federal surveillance. Similarly, your Internet use can be monitored without your knowledge, and your Internet provider can be forced to hand over user information to law enforcement without a warrant or subpoena. (...)

The Patriot Act violates the Constitution by allowing searches and seizures of American citizens and their property without a warrant issued by an independent court upon a finding of probable cause. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Courts, whose standards do not meet the constitutional requirements for the Fourth Amendment, may issue warrants for individual records, including medical and library records. It can do so secretly, and the person who turns over the records is muzzled and cannot ever speak of the search. The attorney general is given the power, with no judicial oversight, to write "national security letters" ordering holders of any of your personal records to hand them over for the government to examine – a power that has already been abused. You would have no way of knowing that this had been done.>>

Google in an earlier statement in regards to subpoenas seems to agree, answering "As a matter of policy, we don't provide specifics on law enforcement requests to Google."

* The Revolution
http://www.amazon.com/Revolution-Manifesto-Ron-Paul/dp/0446537519/

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