Government collects information on you from Google
We all use Google. We’ve all used the term ‘Google it.’ Well, it turns out the government is a big fan of the search engine, too. And they might be Googling you.
Google says the government made thousands of requests in 2012 for information on its users. And what's the government looking for? Things connected to criminal activity. Houston privacy attorney Chris Lewis explains why.
“Google has information and if you look at their statement of purpose their objective is to organize all the world’s information. If the government wants information about its users, what a great place to go,” Lewis said.
Lewis told KTRH you should be careful about what you do online.
“Anyone who believes it’s private is fooling themselves. There is no special privilege protecting communications between you and your service provider, or between you and your search engine,” Lewis said.
Rocky Rhodes of the South Texas College of Law says if you think you can find protection from the courts, think again.
“When you use a business to transmit information, the United States Supreme Court says you have a diminished expectation of privacy. Therefore it’s easier for the government to be able to access that information,” Rhodes said.
Rhodes told KTRH there is only one thing you can do about this.
“Advocate for stronger privacy laws. Congress is considering some laws that would make it more difficult to obtain stored emails,” Rhodes explained.
Rhodes says we can't go with Europe's tougher privacy laws, but we can make tougher privacy laws to protect ourselves.
