Reflections on Life, Liberty and Library Science

Google has stumbled a step in its path towards world domination after a court in France ruled that the search engine company is breaking French law with its Google Books project, handing down a daily fine equivalent to $15,000 until the data in question is completely removed.

The case marks yet another instance in which the European Union and its member nations have exhibited a more progressive stance on copyright protection, and more aggressive stance against corporate interests, as evidenced by their recent $1.5 billion fine against Microsoft.

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When I need to know about SEO, I don’t go to some spammy search marketing scientician who claims to have reverse-engineered Google. I go to the source: Matt Cutts. But while reading Matt’s blog the other day and noticed that he had taken umbrage at a study claiming that two-thirds of Americans object to online tracking (only 66 percent?). Matt’s objection is that that one of the authors of the study, Chris Jay Hoofnagle, did not disclose his affiliation with the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), an advocacy group that has lobbied to have both Gmail and Google Docs shut down. Could this be a flame war in the making?

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Information wants to be free. It wants to be freely sought out, expressed, and received. In fact, the United Nations has declared that humans have a right to seek, receive and impart information. While the First Amendment grants us freedom of expression, and the Freedom of Information Act gives us limited access to government data, the right to seek out and receive information is not guaranteed by the Constitution, even when the information in question happens to be your name or Social Security number.

But don’t take my word for it; just call AT&T and ask them questions like, “How do you use my personal information? Who else have you disclosed this information to?” Let me know how they respond.

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Earlier this year, Facebook raised the ire of users and privacy rights groups when the social networking company announced updates to its privacy policy, which some interpreted as a declaration of ownership over the media and information uploaded by Facebook users. While the Facebook debacle may be old news, the larger issue of ownership over personal media and information has yet to be addressed in a meaningful way. Thus, the question remains: when we participate as “users” in a cybernated society, whether as Facebook fanatics or AT&T customers, are we (or should we be) allowing these organizations to claim ownership over the information and media we store in their systems? Do all our base belong to them?

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