paranoia seeps in

Last summer, I sent all of my work-related emails out of my Google account. Thrilled with the fact that I could access them all with a simple word search, I was surprised when one of my recipients scoffed at my email address. "Gmail, huh?" he wrote. "I have my mailbox set up to throw all gmail messages in the junk folder." When I pressed him on this strange practice, he explained that Google archives everything, making it easy for Google to track down all conversations. If Google can track it down, so can the government. Because this guy epitomized anti-establishment paranoia and because Google has always been plain awesome, I just wrote him off.

Or so I thought. It seems that he unsettled me more than I initially admitted. Since then, stories have come out about the government subpoenaing Google for search records. And today, Google's CEO said that the company will comply with China's restriction, including a prohibition on searches of words like "Tibetan" and "democracy."* Though I don't necessarily think Google needs to work to flout China's laws right now, Google's compliance undermines its commitment to protecting free speech from government encroachment. I think the company will fight the U.S. government on some issues, but at what point will they hand over our information? Even now, do you or I reasonably expect that whatever we write online is private? When I write an email on Gmail, this entry on Google-owned Blogger, or an event on the new Google calendar, will I really be surprised to learn that someone somewhere is monitoring my activity? Probably not, but that doesn't mean it doesn't worry me.

By not having a reasonable expectation of privacy in these activities, I lose my Fourth Amendment rights to be free from the government's unreasonable search and seizure of these online writings. Which means that if the government wanted my stuff, they could get it, even if they don't suspect me of doing a damn thing. If I'm not doing anything wrong, then I shouldn't have anything to hide, right? I guess, but that still doesn't comfort me. So as awesome as I think Google calendar is, I just might stick with my trusty dayplanner. And go back to handwriting letters. And call you all instead of blogging.

* I wonder how extensive the list of prohibited search words is. Practically speaking, it seems like the government cannot effectively censor these ideas by relying on search terms alone. Anyone who plays Taboo knows that when you can't use a word, you use its synonym. But I guess using synonyms to get around China's censorship requires a command of the language that not every Chinese person has. I bet Gary has some opinions about Chinese people playing Taboo.