Page 182 - Battleground The Media Volume 1 and 2

Google Book Search | 1 1

of Global Positioning Systems; and credit agencies can quickly deliver reports of
your payment history to almost anyone.
Information scholar Howard Besser (2001) writes that “today a large num-
ber of websites monitor the browsing that goes on at their site, tracking who is
looking at what, how often, and for how long. A whole industry has emerged
that purchases this kind of personal marketing information from site managers
and resells it. In difficult financial times, even licensors who are committed to
privacy concerns may find the temptation of payment for this kind of informa-
tion difficult to resist.”
With the development of Google Book Search, the online giant has equipped
itself with a superior tool for determining who its customers are—as well as
what they are reading. Google earns virtually all of its money from advertise-
ments, and all queries conducted via Google Book Search are recorded in the
company’s database. For example, when a person signs in to seek George Or-
well’s 1984, Google logs the search in the user’s profile and tracks what part of
the world they are logging in from via an Internet protocol (IP) address. This
information is then preserved indefinitely in Google’s archives, and is ultimately
used to develop targeted demographic profiles to be sold to marketing firms.
While Google’s behavior is not atypical for the search industry (virtually all
online companies do the same thing), it does conflict with libraries’ strong tra-
dition of privacy protection. Libraries dump records on a regular basis—once
a checked-out book has been returned, the library destroys any information
regarding that transaction. Historically, librarians have even risked going to jail
rather than turn over patron information sought via government subpoena.
This reflects the belief held by free-speech advocates that libraries represent one
of the few public institutions where people can freely pursue open thought and
engage in original, controversial research without fear of reprisal.
However, after the terrorist attacks of 2001 this practice was challenged by
the Bush administration when it was revealed that hijackers used public library
computers to conduct some of their communiqués. In response, the government
designed the U.S. Patriot Act to gather information in public places where peo-
ple do not expect complete privacy.
Google does not hold itself to the same privacy standards as libraries. Thus,
the government can gain access to Google’s databases by presenting a court-
backed warrant seeking information. Plus, under the Patriot Act, “Google may
not be able to tell users when it hands over their searches or e-mail messages”
(Cohen 2005). Adam Cohen argues in the New York Times that “if the federal
government announced plans to directly collect the sort of data Google does,
there would be an uproar—in fact there was in 2003, when the Pentagon an-
nounced its Total Information Awareness program, which was quickly shut
down.”

Looking TowarD ThE FuTurE

If Google becomes the first (and perhaps only) point of reference for an
11-year-old seeking to write a book report, one can imagine the possibilities for